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James Baldwin's A Letter To My Nephew

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People have always been judged since the beginning of time. From the pitch of their voice all the way to the way they walk. It is sometimes a first instinct for many people and appearances can also be the determining factor for many positions. Although, the most common way people are judged is by their appearance, which is completely inhumane since nobody is perfect. So it obviously isn’t fair to judge by physical appearances alone.
When you first see someone the first place your eyes travel to how a person looks in the face. I took a survey at my school asking 65 students “what was the first thing they noticed when they first notice someone?” 75% of them said they noticed what the person looked like in the face first before anything else. …show more content…

From the short story “A Letter To My Nephew” is about James Baldwin warning his nephew James about the life of a young African American boy. Through out the story the author tells his nephew that in order to survive in such an environment, his nephew James and the other African American kids in his generation will have to be strong, and to not let how the white people treat them effect them. Baldwin asserts that because his nephew "is black, and for no other reason," American society has deemed him worthless, set limits to his ambitions, and conditioned him to "make peace with mediocrity." The establishment has placed boundaries on what he can do, where he can live, and whom he can marry. Though these assertions will no doubt be called exaggerations by white America, every African American needs to only focus on themselves and to not let how others judge them by the color of their skin destroy their ego. A more present version of this situation is the Black Lives Matter movement. Ever since the injustice that happened to the families of Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown African Americans have been trying to prove to others that it is not okay to judge someone and assume that they are doing something bad based on how they look. But you shouldn’t let what others say about change that you already are. The Black Lives Matter movement and “A Letter To My Nephew” demonstrates how being judged because of your ethnicity isn’t

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Every individual is born with a specific culture and color. Respecting each and every person is society’s duty. Society fails in doing so by treating each individual based on their color. Society has two ways to see a person and that is black and white. Whites are given the higher position and well treatment whereas blacks are treated in an opposite way than whites.

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Emotion has a way of worming through shields and walls, penetrating even the most guarded heart. No matter how stubborn and unrelenting one may be, emotion is even more stubborn and unrelenting. “There are those… like a mighty stream,” (MLK, pg. 263). The way MLK phrases what he wanted to say thunders loudly, rings clearly and boldly. Delving into detail of how the Negro is specifically suffering a loss of dignity and self importance by the segregation that treats them like petty animals, being herded, speaks much more loudly than simply stating that Negroes are degraded and treated poorly.

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In the book our protagonist, Grant, shows clearing how society and place shapes him from day to day. In his classroom at an all black school he is the leader and is very powerful and shows no shame and back down to no one. Then when he is in the presence of white men he is automatically inferior and lets them lead. This is not only because of his personality but because of how it was the social norm for this to happen back in the 1940s. It is another disturbing and saddening case of how one race could be superior to

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Blacks are not allowed to roam freely and do as they please due to what “rules” Whites have placed in society. In a speech made by a valedictorian at an free school in New York City. He starts his speech by explaining on how he works just as hard as any other man, regardless of color, yet feels insignificant. “Where are my prospects? To what shall I turn my hand?...

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By saying he was sad that they thought of him that way but wasn’t anymore until he thought it over. He talks about two forces and how he stands in the middle of the two. The two forces are the African American who has adjusted to segregation and the African American who is tired of it and results to violence. He then says “So the question is not whether we will be extremist, but what kind of extremist we will be.” He

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Baldwin claimed that this form of oppression left African Americans with two options - to accept the fact that they were dispensable members of society and bottle up their anger, or to “become a kind of criminal”, one that “has turned away from this country forever” and decided to “live outside the law”. Either way, African Americans learn to develop hatred toward America and augment “this country’s tremendous reservoirs of bitterness” which Baldwin believes will eventually lead to turmoil and the downfall of our “unified”

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“Social relationships are central to human well-being and are critically involved in the maintenance of health” (Andrew Steptoe). And while some are able to cope, in many instances the majority of extreme isolation cases has caused more harm than good. In short story “55 Miles to the Gas Pump” by Annie Proulx, clearly shows the mental and physical effects of living in an isolated area and what it can do to unstable lonely minds. Common sense, the most vital rule taught since birth are easily neglected. Stated in article "Solitary Confinement.", one of the most important reasons why, “Extreme solitary confinement combines physical and emotional discomfort…A factor that psychologists argue is a major factor in driving people to insanity” (Ed.

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James Baldwin uses words such as “frightened”, “baffled”, and “betrayed” (pg. 665) along with many other words to describe his frustration towards the people in both countries and their treatment of African Americans. He describes people in America

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I personally have been in that situation where people would judge me just base on the way I look or what religion I may follow. Everyone has an idea of other people till they actually meet them. It can be a life changing and makes you look at things a whole lot different. Thin slicing, I got this evidence from the book Blink. I think it’s a perfect example of judging a person on their appearance.

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In the essay “Notes of a Native Son” by James Baldwin, he expresses feelings of hate and despair towards his father. His father died when James was 19 years old from tuberculosis; it just so happens that his funeral was on the day of the Harlem Riot of 1943. Baldwin explains that his father isn’t fond of white people due to the racist past. He recalls a time when a white teacher brought him to a theater and that caused nothing but upset with his father, even though it was a kind act. Many events happened to Baldwin as a result of segregation, including a time where a waitress refused to serve him due to his skin color and Baldwin threw a pitcher of water at her.

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You should never be judged by your appearance. They don’t always tell the right story. In “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, Tom Robinson was falsely accused of raping Mayella Ewell. They lived in a racist town and didn’t like Tom Robinson. The Ewell’s were jealous and decided to make a story up to make them seem better and him be wrongly punished.

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That is the same thing that is happening today people are getting judged on how they look and people judge then and never get to know the real them. For example, in today’s world people are judging others by the way they dress and still the color of their skin. We can’t help judging others because we are all human and all humans do it. But before we judge someone next time we can maybe get to know them a

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“You were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that you were a worthless human being. You were not expected to aspire to excellence”. His letter also discussed the idea of discovering one's self not through the sentiments of others, but rather through the conclusions of oneself. I feel like he is not just cautioning his nephew, but the black community in general of such society. I believe that his letter was a plea to the black community to “accept the whites with love” for “they are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand”, while in the same token, not giving in to their stereotypes of black identity like his father did.

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Why do so many people feel the need to judge others based on how they look? Judging others gives people a sense of honor because demeaning others can create a sense of security and identity. If one concludes who a person is merely on what they look like they will miss what is important, what their morals are, and what their intentions are. It takes an individual who has read the novel To Kill A Mockingbird to understand because it is a perfect example of treating others with respect and not determining who others are based on what they look like. Many characters in Lee’s

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By using solely the color of one’s skin to identify a person, race can be misjudged and, therefore, the racial struggles that one has faced are minimized and even negated. This not only happens when people do not fit the color of a race, but it also occurs when the biracial person does not act like a stereotypical member of a race. For example, “one participant discussed being critiqued by her classmate because of her behaviors: One of the guys in my class came up to me and told me that I’m not Black enough. I’m too White, talked too White, dressed too White, acted too White, and that basically I need to be more Black” (Franco et al. 2016:8). The need to be more black is the need to conform to society’s racial groups rather than identifying as what each biracial person feels they are.

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