Writing the Civil Rights: Wright, Ellison, Baldwin

Richard Wright, “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow”

Richard Wright, “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow”

1. Wright decides to tell his story of “Jim Crow education” in the form of several anecdotes or vignettes – short narratives that usually illustrate a single event. Why, do you think, he decides to narrate his experience in this form? Choose one of the anecdotes and explain what “lesson” about life as an African-American man in Jim Crow South it illustrates.
2. Look up a definition of the word “ethics.” Are the “lessons” the narrator is learning about surviving racism really about ethics – does he learn to be a more “ethical” person? Why, do you think, he uses the word “ethics” in the title? (On a related note, think about how often survivors of horrible violence in the text as referred to as being “lucky” – the assaulted woman at the end of section II, Wright himself in section III, the mutilated bell-boy in section VII. What does it mean for a Black person to be “lucky” in Jim Crow South? What does it mean to be “ethical”?)
3. The moral of many of the “lessons” in Wright’s autobiographical sketch is that, in order to survive anti-Black violence, African Americans had to “wear the mask,” as Paul Laurence Dunbar put it. As Wright himself phrases it, there is a “dual role that every Negro must play if he wants to eat and live” (30). However, at the very end of the sketch, Wright reveals to his readers what hides behind the mask, or how Black people “really feel about the way they have to live” (32). Rather than explaining it, he quotes a friend who states: “Lawd, man! Ef it wuzn’t fer them polices ‘n’ them ol’ lynch-mobs, there wouldn’t be nothin’ but uproar down here!” (32). How do you understand the friend’s statement? Do you think Wright agrees with it? What effect might this ending of the sketch have on various (Black, white) contemporary readers of Wright’s text – and who, do you think, was the reader Wright wanted to reach with his writing? (“The Ethics” was published in 1937, when Jim Crow segregation was still very much the law of the land in the American South).
4. Watch this performance of the legendary Nina Simone singing her Civil-Rights-inspired song “Mississippi Goddam”:

You can read the lyrics (and, importantly, the annotations that explain their historical context) to the song here: https://genius.com/Nina-simone-mississippi-goddam-lyrics.

How does Simone’s take on life under Jim Crow differ from – and how is it similar to – that of Wright? What is the mood and tone of her song as created by the lyrics as well as the music and her voice? What does Simone have to say about the progress of civil – and human – rights in America? (For context, the song was written almost 30 years after Wright’s text was published.)

Ralph Ellison, “A Party Down at the Square”

1. What do we know about the story’s narrator? Is he Black or white? Where is he from, and what is he (most likely) doing in the South? (Hint: his uncle calls him “the gutless wonder from Cincinnati” towards the end of the story.) How old do you think he is? (Think about the language he uses, his reactions to and comprehension of the events he is participating in, and what he chooses to focus on in his recollection.) What emotions accompany him when he recollects the night of the “party”? Why, do you think, Ellison decided to tell the story of a lynching – a terrifyingly common event in Jim Crow South – from a perspective of this particular narrator? How do the narrator’s race, age, and place of origin affect his perception – and presentation – of the events?
2. How do you understand Jed’s response to the dying man’s plea for the mob to show him mercy: “Sorry, but ain’t no Christians around tonight. Ain’t no Jew-boys neither. We’re just one hundred percent Americans” (3)? What, according to this logic, makes a “100% American”? How is this view of what makes one (white) American similar to the white American identity Baldwin talks about in his essay? Do you think the narrator’s repetitive use of the racial slur (the “n-word”) to refer to the lynched man has something to do with this understanding of white/American identity – even if the narrator doesn’t quite understand it himself?
3. The story features several symbols – objects or events that may be read at face value but also carry with them some deeper connotations that add another layer of meaning to the story. What, in your opinion, is the symbolic meaning of (1) the bronze statue of the Confederate general standing in the square; (2) the plane that accidentally tears down the town’s electrical wires and kills a member of the lynch party; (3) the cyclone that hits the town the day after the lynching (and the weather on the night of the lynching as well)? Please choose and discuss one of them.
4. Watch this performance of the song “Strange Fruit,” the iconic anti-lynching protest song sung by the jazz legend Billie Holiday:

You can read the lyrics to the song here: https://genius.com/Billie-holiday-strange-fruit-lyrics. How is the tone and mood of the song different from that evoked by Ellison’s narrator? How is the perspective different? What is the main extended metaphor in the song’s lyrics, and how does it help amplify the song’s protest message? Which of these – Ellison’s text or Holiday’s song – do you find more compelling, personally (and why)? (If you feel like it, Google the history of the myriad performances and uses of this song and think about what makes it compelling for artists today, in particular hip hop musicians who continue sampling it in their works?)

James Baldwin, “Stranger in the Village”

James Baldwin is famous for his novels that approach universally human subjects – humanity, religion, and love – from a perspective that never lets the reader forget that while the humanity we all share may be universal, the rights we enjoy under our political and ideological systems are certainly not. The 2016 documentary I Am Not Your Negro, inspired by Baldwin’s notes and letters, presents the life and work of Baldwin in the larger context of his times, marked by the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s and by the quintessentially American questions of white and Black identity and humanity. Please see the trailer for the film below to hear some of Baldwin’s most memorable statements and see footage that reflects the turbulent spirit of his – and our – contemporary America:

As the trailer illustrates, Baldwin is unparalleled in delivering beautifully phrased philosophical observations in a way that is both rich in metaphor and powerfully to-the-point. To draw your attention to this quality of Baldwin’s writing, the following discussion questions all begin with quotations from “Stranger in the Village” that I would like you to interpret/unpack.

1. Describing how the white inhabitants of the Swiss village approached him – such as the children calling him “Neger!” or people touching his hair in amazement – Baldwin states that even that there was “certainly no element of intentional unkindness” in their behavior, “there was yet no suggestion that I was human: I was simply a living wonder” (2). How do you understand this statement? What does it illustrate about Baldwin’s understanding of racism – can one be unintentionally racist? Is racism an individual act or rather a systemic set of historical and ideological factors? (Hint: consider his later definition of white supremacy: “The idea of white supremacy rests simply on the fact that white men are the creators of civilization” (6)”).
2. “But there is a great difference between being the first white man to be seen by Africans and being the first black man to be seen by whites” (2). What is this difference, according to Baldwin? What does he mean when he says that white Europeans “cannot be, from the point of view of power, strangers anywhere in the world” (3)?
3. “Most people are not naturally reflective any more than they are naturally malicious, and the white man prefers to keep the black man at a certain human remove because it is easier for him thus to preserve his simplicity and avoid being called to account for crimes committed by his forefathers, or his neighbors” (3). Why, according to Baldwin, are white people reluctant to discuss – or even think about – racism? What is at stake for them?
4. “There is a dreadful abyss between the streets of this village and the streets of the city in which I was born, between the children who shout Neger! today and those who shouted Nigger! yesterday-the abyss is experience, the American experience. The syllable hurled behind me today expresses, above all, wonder: I am a stranger here. But, I am not a stranger in America and the same syllable riding on the American air expresses the war my presence has occasioned in the American soul” (4). How do you understand this fragment? What is the difference between his experiences of being Black in Switzerland and being Black in America? (Consider this later fragment: “the black man, as a man, did not exist for Europe” [5])
5. “For the history of the American Negro is unique also in this: that the question of his humanity, and of his rights therefore as a human being, became a burning one for several generations of Americans, so burning a question that it ultimately became one of those used to divide the nation” (5). What, according to Baldwin, makes the history of African Americans unique in the context of world history?
6. “At the root of the American Negro problem is the necessity of the American white man to find a way of living with the Negro in order to be able to live with himself” (6). How do you understand this statement? How are the identities of white and Black Americans intertwined, according to Baldwin? What does he mean when he says that “the interracial drama acted out on the American continent has not only created a new black man, it has created a new white man, too,” and so the “world is white no longer, and will never be white again” (7)?

Izabela Florczak. “The Ethics of Living Jim Crow”, question 1. I think that Wrights decides to tell his story of “Jim Crow education” in this form, because he would like to show readers different form of education as African Americans. There are a few anecdotes, which he calls “lessons” and I see them as lessons at school, but for him it is a real “school of life”. He wants to readers remember these lessons and their conclusion like students remember the most important aspect after classes. He pushes us to wonder about situations, which are realistic about life as African Americans. The anecdotes show a huge problem of racism and difficulties connected with this life, what makes me feel sympathetic and encourages to appreciate benefits of life. For me, the most devastating anecdote is this one connected with job in clothing store. When the boss with his son “half dragged and half kicked a Negro woman into the store”, what is more the policeman looked at this and in the end “accused her of being drunk”. This anecdote is a picture of the worst racist point of view. They did not see the woman equal, they treated her as thing and said, laughing “Boy, that’s what we do to niggers when they don’t want to pay their bills”. It was warning and intimidation for Jim Cow. They gave him cigarettes and he understood that must be quiet; “they would not beat me if I knew enough to keep my mouth shut…”, and came back to work. We can see how fast and simple is process of racism dissemination. In this situation, father who should be a guiding light for his son, gave him the worst thinking and taught him how to discriminate and to be a racist. In my opinion, people like this father and his son are deprived of feelings. It reminds me statement that there were equal and more equal people, which was general totalitarian truth, explained as allegory in the novel “Animal Farm”, by George Orwell, where “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/animalfarm/quotes/page/4/

Izabela Florczak. “Stranger in the Village”, question 2. According to Baldwin’s statement; “But there is a great difference between being the first white man to be seen by Africans and being the first black man to be seen by whites”, the difference is in way of thinking, also in perceiving himself and how he is perceived by white people. In his opinion when “the white man” arrived to the African village, he is seeing as Savior, to whom people must be grateful for coming and understand this as an opportunity to improve their life, what I see in the following fragment; “The white man takes the astonishment as tribute, for arrives to conquer and to convert the natives, whose inferiority in relation to himself in not even to be questioned…”. He is proud, because of his achievements. Whereas, “being the first black man to be seen by whites”, is statement, which I understand as self-criticism. Baldwin sees difference in mentality and does not see Black people equal. He feels inferior to white people, and knows that he is the man controlled by people, who see him as a stranger. In this case, he is the one, who needs to follow the rules. White people made him intimidated and created as a person with the same mentality; “I, without a thought of consequence, find myself among a people whose culture controls me, has even, in a sense, created me, people who have cost me more in anguish and range than they will ever know, who yet do not even know of my existence.”. Baldwin says that Europeans “cannot be from the point of view of power, strangers anywhere in the world”, because they are a group of people, who are perceived as the most powerful. “They have made the modem world, in effect, even if they do not know it”. They created a cultural world, thanks to the artists like; Dante, Shakespeare, Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Rembrandt, who are well known all over the world. The Europeans created new world with civilization and made people aware of culture and open to new experience.

Adam Sakowski. James Baldwin. “Stranger in the village”. Question no 4. In my opinion James Baldwin by this statement meant that racism affects him in America despite the fact that black people were inscribed in US history from the beginning, in contrast to Switzerland. In Switzerland, unlike the United States of America, he is called a N-word because of the lack of knowledge of the population about black people. People here don’t use the n-word ​​to offend him. They just don’t know the story connected with it, because of what they don’t know it’s offensive. “The children who shout Neger! Have no way of knowing the echoes this sound raises in me”. The people here treat him differently because they have no idea about black people. And they do things that can probably be considered a provocation, (e.g. they tries to rub the color off “they put their hand on my hand, astonished that the color did not rub off”) just out of curiosity and not hatred as it is in the case of the USA. Because of disinformation people in Switzerland think that African natives was bought by missionaries for the purpose of converting them into Christians. “I am told it is repeated in many villages-of buying Africans natives for the purpose of converting them to Christianity”. Moreover because of this belief they still raise funds to buy black people so that the missionaries could save their soul (As you can see they have no bad intentions). After some time spent in the village, the inhabitants began to learn about him more, which made racist behavior disappear. (As I said earlier in the US it wouldn’t be possible because racism in there is the result of hatred, not a lack of knowledge). “The villagers wonder less about the texture of my hair than they did then, and wonder rather more about me. And the fact that their wonder now exists on another level is reflected in their attitudes and in their eyes”.  Taking all things considered, being black in USA and in Switzerland are and are not the same at the same time. People in Switzerland are racist towards black people, although they don’t do it on purpose. Their actions are the results of a lack of knowledge and prejudice about black people because they didn’t have a chance to get them know better. But when they began to get to know him better, their attitude began to change. 

Karolina Nowak. “Stranger in the Village,” question 3. I think what white people are reluctant to discuss is the past. I believe they are afraid that if they behave in a certain way to a Black person, they might be called out for that. Even if the past is in the past, it is hard for some attitudes to disappear: “He is inescapably aware, nevertheless, that he is in a better position in the world than black man are.” Therefore, white people prefer not to come in contact with Black people because they are scared that what happened in the past, might backfire on them now: “Nor can he quite put to death the suspicion that he is hated by black men therefore.” I think there are few things on stake for white people. First, they might have a mindset that history and their ancestors created, which makes them afraid that the tables might turn now: “He does not wish to be hated, neither does he wish to change places, and at this point in his uneasiness he can scarcely avoid having recourse to those legends which white men have created about black men.” Second, some of them could be scared that they will have to pay for what their ancestors did: “It is easier for him thus to preserve his simplicity and avoid being called to account for crimes committed by his forefathers, or his neighbors.” Therefore, I believe white people are reluctant to admit to the wrongful actions of their ancestors and to move on from this mindset of white superiority.

Karolina Nowak. “A Party Down at the Square,” question 4. The tone and mood are both eerie and dark, but I think the perspective changes how we perceive them. Ellison’s narrator seems to be quite indifferent about the lynching: “Every time I eat barbeque I’ll remember that nigger. His back was like a barbecued hog.” On the other hand, he describes other events in a more lively way. The description of the airplane as “she” gives you an impression as it is a person: “Then she rose up into the low clouds […] there she was again, like a big bird lost in the fog.” It is unimaginable for me to compare a person who is being tortured to a “barbecued hog,” and the airplane to a person. It makes you feel both angry and sad that the narrator is so unconcerned that he can think about food in such a situation. On the other hand, the song presents a different perspective. It is like the person who is singing can understand the pain of what she is singing about. It is as you can hear the sadness and tiredness of these events in her voice, which makes you feel emotions on a deeper level. In my opinion, the extended metaphor is about lynching: “Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.” “Strange fruit” refers to Black people being hanged from trees. It is “strange fruit” because what kind of tree bears fruit that is people. How is it possible for humans to treat another human in such a horrifying way only because of skin color. I think both of these pieces are compelling, and it is hard to choose only one. They both make you feel angry and depressed that something like that happened.

Jakub Wojciechowski, „A Party at Down at the Square”, question 2
I think that „just 100% Americans” refers to the strong, nearly fanatic attitude American people had towards their country back then (and still have today). After separating themselves from the British Crown, Americans became creating their own culture and creed, often revolving around th idea of freedom and fullfilement for an individual. Americans grasped this idea very firmly, seeing everyone who can anyhow negate it as their personal enemy. That’s why being American is equal to being Christian or Jew – beucase fighting for your country old ideas is nothing short from a religious warfare. (Many Americans still stay with this „religion” today, which was genuitely confirmed by the Covid-19 epidemy)
„Stranger in the Village” question 2
According to James Baldwin, one can centrainly be unintentionally racist. He understand racism as treating other people in a different, mostly inconvenient way because of their skin colour or ethnic background. People in the Swiss village were doing exactly that, but not because of their bad intentions. They were doing that, because black men were a wonder to them. They know just their own culture and therefore do not understand, that what they were doing might be unappropriate in the other. If we wanted to be super specific, we would actually call their attitude as „ethnocentric”.

Patrycja Kubacka, “Stranger in the Village” question 4. I think there can be some difference between experiences of being Black in Switzerland and in America. In my opinion, being a Black man in Switzerland means being only different, that you have a black coloured skin. In Switzerland he was a “simply wonder” for villagers. There hasn’t been any Black men before so they paid attention to him. They didn’t want to offend him, they was just marvelling at him that he is different. They touched his hair because of curiosity. “They are brimming with good humor and the more daring swell with pride when I stop to speak with them.” Here I can see that he is seen as a wonder. They feel pride to talk with him. However, he sometimes feels hurt : “The children who shout Neger! have no way of knowing the echoes this sound raises in me.”. He feels pain while being named “Neger” but he knows that the children don’t realise it can be hurting. Also, some woman are kind for him and they stop to talk with him with a friendly smile. Generally speaking, in Switzerland he was just like a different from others, it wasn’t like he is a bad one, because of the colour of the skin. Being Black in America means that you are being humiliated, like you are worse than white people. They not marvel at Black people, because they have seen they quite a lot of times. There is prejudice and racism for black people in America and also laws are limited, like you should be a slave for all your life. It doesn’t matter that it was in the past, you still should be a slave, like you used to be. But black people want to get rid of this, because they are not seen as human beings, but just like slaves and servants.

Patrycja Ciupińska Ralph Ellison, “A Party Down at the Square” question 3

In my opinion, the plane was to stop the black man’s torture caused by the white people of the city. The wings of the plane resemble the wings of an angel so the flying machine was supposed to be something like the guardian angel of this lynched young man. And the death of a member of the lynching party was to be a warning not to bully a black man. As if God was rebelling against the harm of another human being. Perhaps he would also like to show that evil breeds evil, that everyone is equal and that both white and black people can suffer harm.

Patrycja Ciupińska James Baldwin, “Stranger in the Village” question 1

I believe that the inhabitants reacted in this way to him, i.e., for example, touched his hair with astonishment, because as the author of the text says he was the first black man who came to the village, so white people surrounded him everywhere. And it is known that if one race ventures into another, it is controversial the more that the first one looks different. And as you know, we first look at the appearance. This is our human nature. So it was not an “element of intentional unkindness,” but our nature – people are curious about what is unknown. They didn’t do it on purpose. The more they touched his hair with amazement, which cannot be called offensive. The only thing that could be rude was that they paid their attention to him as if he was something “a living wonder” and not someone. Someone-one of them, human. A wonder is by definition something deviating from the norms, so I understand this statement as that because of that they paid too much attention to him, he did not feel human, but kind of non-human being. I think you can be unintentionally racist, an example of this is the reaction of people to a black man in the text. Although he did not get bullied from them, the very fact that they looked at him differently made them racists. As a rule, people are afraid of what is new, and because the first civilizations in Europe were white and numerous, their discrimination against other races helped fight and subjugate them. In this case, it seems to me that racism is a systemic set of historical and ideological factors because, looking at it from the perspective of humanity, we all show the same physiological and psychological needs regardless of race. History, however, allows us to prejudice and discrimination, which allows most to take power.

Adam Sakowski. “A party Down at the square”. Question no.3 In my opinion, the weather on the lynch night can symbolize the emotions accompanying a god who looks at what white people do to this poor black man. The cold can symbolize God’s fera of what will happen with the black man, because the worse things happens the colder it gets especially a moment before setting fire to the pile. “The ice had started the cobblestones in the street to shine where the rain was falling and freezing”. Cold rain can symbolize the cry of God (as the father of all people) over the fate of his child and begging them to stop (because it last until fire is lit). ”They were burning good now, and the rain had stopped…”. The rising wind can mean anger rising in God due to crimes they committed against other man. Because it increases with fire and burns on the body of a black man. “…and the wind was rising, making the flames flare higher”. The cyclone symbolizes the punishment sent by God for burning a man alive. For his slow suffering and all the harm they have done to him (because after all this massacre the wind destroyed the city and started the fire). “It blew for three days steady, and put the town in a hell of a shape” 

Patrycja Kubacka “A Party Down at the Square” question 1.  What we know about the narrator is that he is white, because of how he reffers to Black man. He calls him “nigger” over 40 times in the story. He comes from the North as his uncle calls him “the gutless wonder from Cincinnati”. The narrator came to visit his uncle in the South, but suddenly they went for a “party” with other people. In fact, it wasn’t a party, because the “entertainment” here was making Black man suffer and in the end, even killing him. I think the narrator can be a teenager or something like that, because he seems to be naive and also his point of view is very specific. When Black man is set on fire, he describes him like “a chicken on a hot stove” or he talks about the plane as “she”. It was quite weird for me to be honest. But going back to “chicken” ,this fragment also caught my attention : “I’ll never forget it. Every time I eat barbeque I’ll remember that never forget it. Every time I eat barbeque I’ll remember that nigger. His back was just like a barbecued hog”. When I read it, I felt disgusted by that comparison. Also, the thing that tells me that he is a young person is counting the cars. What adult counts cars, especially in such brutal event? It is unthinkable and unbelievable. Another thing is when the plane is going to fall. ” I wanted to run, and I wanted to stay and see what was going to happen. The plane was close as hell.” Even the plane gets closer and closer he doesn’t want to escape and to try to save his life. He wants to watch what will happen. It is characteristic for young people or even children – the unlimited curiosity. When he recollects the night of the “party” he feels weak, too weak to even go out. He lists the things that happened that night. He is shocked by what he witnessed. He doesn’t like this kind of “entertainment”, as he says : ” It was my first party and my last”. He is also shocked by how much suffer and pain Black man was able to withstand. I think Ellison decided to tell the story from this perspective to show in more brutal way how the Black people were treated, what other think about them, in what way. We can have more realistic and unscrupulous point of view, like with the chicken, for example. As the narrator comes from North, he is unaware of what is happening, it also helps in writing with “fresh” impressions. The narrator describes a lot of things in details, as he sees it for the first time.

Liza Pototska.♥ “The party down the square”. Q.1.

In my opinion, the narrator is young white boy. I think so because of several reasons. The first one is about the race. I think, he is white, because at the beginning of the story we see how the narrator describes the events: “Some of the men had guns, and one man kept goosing the nigger in his pants with the barrel of a shotgun, saying he ought topull the trigger, but he never did.”  These manner of calling black people “nigga” is peculiar only for white people.  

The second one is about the age of the main character. I suggest that it is a young boy 13-16 years old. It is the first what caught my eye. The point is that elder people treats black ones stricter or crueler. The narrator describes “nigger” as usual man, excepting the name. I think, it was caused by the way how he was taught to call them. But in these lines, I don’t see hate, scorn or disrespect. And it is the main reason, why I suppose, that the main character, the narrator, is young boy. 

The last thing connecting to my suggestions about the narrator would be the way of perception. The situation scares the narrator: “God, it was a hell of a night”. In the way of narrator’s describing, we can see the fear and, maybe, the first experience of that kind of actions. The appearance of the nigger made the narrator to commiserate the first one. The main character was shocked and scared of what was going on: “The nigger was bleeding from his nose and ears, and I could see him all red where the dark blood was running down his black skin. He kept lifting first one foot and then the other, like a chicken on a hot stove.” That was quite hard for the narrator to see all these horrible things, but he should have to stay: “I didn’t step on him though, and Jed and somebody else pushed him back into the burning planks and logs and poured on more gas. I wanted to leave, but the folks were yelling and I couldn’t move except to look around and see the statue.” And the last confirmation of my thoughts: “The next day I was too weak to go out, and my uncle kidded me and called me “the gutless wonder from Cincinnati.” I didn’t mind. He said you get used to it in time”. This quote confirms the words that the storyteller is a young guy, because young minds, not yet accustomed to this, can hardly endure the first experience. It is very difficult not only mentally, but also physically. Such events greatly affect the formation of worldview and perception of the world. And, according to the words before, the reason my uncle called the narrator “the gutless wonder from Cincinnati” was the fact, that he was managed to stay to the very end. 

Liza Pototska.♥ R. Wright. Q.2.

In my opinion, the author sent his massage to people of all races. I think that the point is in the way of living and this can connect to every race. I also suggest, that based on this essay he tried to pay an attention on the problem with “masks”. The role of the “mask” in the society is quite common. Everyone wears this mask even once upon a time. And the reasons of this action are different. First of all is self-defense doesn’t matter what you want to protect yourself from. The idea of it is to hide the real you.  

According to the author this is very painful and important question not only for black people but also for everyone. We hide who we really are and it cause problems in our heads, problems with perceptions of the world, we can lose ourselves in order to protect.  

 Hence, author’s idea was rich the minds of every human being. Nowadays, the new generation, can appraise it as an example of how world shouldn’t work. The history of black people is so rich in pain and it teaches us how not to be that cruel to anybody. These “lessons” taught the main character how to act being black, and even now we have such “lessons” today. I mean that even now government teaches us how to act being rich or being poor. I think that the main problem, that even now we are taught how to live by somebody who knows “better”, but it is not. It is pity, if we understand it and still follow these rules. I feel that everyone has suffered because of it. 

In addition, a would like to say that the theme of this text is to tell us about these lessons which can ruin our life. That’s why author call out not to live following someone’s rules and doesn’t matter what race or status you are.   

Karol Grzegorzwswki James Baldwin, “Stranger in the Village” Question.1

I think that Baldwin in his statement wanted to show that people of that Swiss village were racists completely unintentionally. When he first arrived to the village while walking through the street he noticed a children who was very surprised when he saw a black man for the first time and shouted ‘‘Neger’’ toward him. At that moment Baldwin noticed that the people around him aren’t hostile to him but more amazed and surprised what a black men was doing in their village. They all treated him not as human or someone worse that human but more like a living wonder. When they looked at him and touched his hair they all were very amazed who is he because they have never seen someone like him before. The title ‘’Neger’’ wasn’t racist in their opinion, it was more like a regular title used toward the black person like the people in the America used to call them. In my opinion racism is rather a systemic set of historical and ideological factors than the individual act. Of course individual acts of racism also appears in the history but I think they are all historically and politically conditioned. As we all know from the history white men from the first moment when they met a black men they started to enslave them and treat them like a slave or things without rights. Over the years and many black strikes it started to deepen and become much worse for them. All around the world they were seen as the animals and cheap labour force.  I think that Baldwin was absolutely right with his statement that ,,The idea of white supremacy rests simply on the fact that white men are the creators of civilization’’. Because of the white people’s conquest over the black ones in the past in our history we’ve got these racist behaviours. The winners write the history and the losers must obey them if they want to live in the society.

Karol Grzegorzewski Ralph Ellison, “A Party Down at the Square” Question.3

In my opinion the bronze statue of the Confederate general standing in the square may be the reference to the civil war. As we all know there was a great war between the north which was against slavery and more or less wanted the equality between all people and the south which wanted to keep blacks as their slaves and continue to use them against their will. From the history we learn that the north won over the south but if we look into whole situation with racism a bit deeper we might get into conclusion that the real winner was a south. Of course not historically because the north won the war but ideologically. From ideology of the south we get to know what they wanted the racial  segregation between whites as the masters and blacks as their slaves. They didn’t even want to hear about something like racial equality and saw them only as worthless things used to make a profit. The result of their ideology we can see in the text where white people enslaved a black men and burned him alive. For all the time when he was burning the statue was standing there ,,like something alive’’ and staring on him with the smile on his face as if he was proud of what they are doing. “…..It was so bright that the bronze statue of the general standing there in the Square was like something alive. The shadows playing on his moldy green face made him seem to be smiling down at the black men….”. Their act and the social acquiescence they had but also the way that black people were treated for a really long time after the civil war is a clear evidence that people assimilated the ideology of the south. Ideology of white superiority and hatred toward a black men. Unfortunately to these days we have many racist behaviours all round the world.