Chapter 1 Assignment:
Respond to ONE of the following questions for your original post and a DIFFERENT question for your response. Please answer them fully and provide examples from the text with page numbers.
What is the crime that Baldwin accuses his country of and what does Baldwin say about the “innocence” of white America?
What does America expect from African Americans and what do White Americans fear about Black Americans?
What is Baldwin’s answer to the chasm between Whites and Blacks and what does Baldwin mean in his last lines: “You know, and I know, that the country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom one hundred years too soon. We cannot be free until they are free”?
Discussion Forum Guidelines
1. Respond to one discussion question fully and please write one page for full credit (300-400 words).
Remember that you should demonstrate a thorough reading of the text material by representing its points accurately and comprehensively, include a quote from the text, demonstrate a thoughtful reflection of and/or reaction to the text material, and focus on text-based reactions by developing additional reactionary points, explaining those points, and adding questions, suggestions, and/or additional citations (all guidelines taken from the discussion rubric).
2. Please respond to a Andrew who has considered a different question and please write one page for full credit (300-400 words).
Remember that you should demonstrate a thorough reading of the initial post by representing its points accurately and comprehensively, your reply should bring up most of the points represented in the initial post and include an ADDITIONAL quote from the text, and your response should be comprehensive in that it demonstrates a thoughtful reflection and/or reaction to the initial post by developing additional reactionary points, explaining those points, and ADD an additional quote.
Andrew’s discussion post:
“2. What does America expect from African Americans and what do White Americans fear about Black Americans?
In Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time he is describing a place where African Americans are treated as subhuman who must conform to the white idea of living. Having African Americans in a state of not knowing and not being able to have an education. Do to whites having a fear that African Americans will be different in a way that will be detrimental toward the whites way of life. America expects nothing more than to see the African American man stuck in a place where they have no future and no ambitions. As described stating “ You were born where you were born and faced the future that you faced because you were born and faced the future that you faced because you were black and for no other reason.” (Baldwin 7) African Americans had to face the hard reality that they are in a country where the white American people are in a position of power. A position where the African American is worth next to nothing “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.” ( Baldwin 7) White Americans by putting African American in such a place basically have authority over them. Creating a sense of being stuck for African Americans as represented “ The black man has functioned in the white man’s world as a fixed star, as an immovable pillar: and as he moves out of his place, heaven and earth are shaken to their foundations.”(Baldwin 9) It is described as if any African American goes out of the “societal norms” then all of the earth and the country will change. And that fear for the white Americans is amplified by this small thought that the country will get taken over by African Americans and the whites will lose “control” of the nation. Leaving the black man in a state of decreased value to one self with no way to get out of it. “
