Blog Post 3/28

         The reading for today’s class began with a story that I, and many people who look like me know too well. James Baldwin was writing a letter to his nephew, being as honest as he could. The moral of the story is if you are black in America, people already have a preconceived notion about who you are and what you can and can’t do. Your job is to prove them wrong. It might not seem fair, and sometimes it can be trying, but it is apart of life as a person of color. Growing up my family made it a point to instill in my siblings, cousins and I that the words of a person who doesn’t know who you truly are shouldn’t effect you. You cannot let these people get into your head because thats when you give them the power that they think they hold. I believe that was the point Baldwin was trying to make to his nephew.  That no matter what you can’t let the world tell you about yourself. You are just as good as them, You can do just as much as they can. You just have to work much harder for the world to recognize it. Baldwin really speaks like a Ta-Nehasi Coates of his time. Speaking out on the position that black people have been in since forever and still are in. We do not have true control of our bodies. Baldwin makes this very apparent in his letter to his nephew. Always trying to prove the world wrong can go into not being in control of your body. I look at it as always having to play this character of how you’re supposed to be, while simultaneously always living in fear of showing who you really are.   

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