Living and growing in a white world / James Baldwin

While a baby is not born with any idea of a society no sense whatever of other people. Its mother exists principally in fact in time. For him or her. And its father exists somewhat later. Entirely for him or her it's only much much later that the baby begins to realize. That the parent. Whom he depended for everything and we supposed held up the world. Is in fact. Just another human being who was not invented for him. That is on the most primary level one of the meanings of an education. On another level. It is the only way that one is unable. To enlarge the world. That sounds like a very grandiose phrase all it means is. That when you for example begin to read you discover more about the world than you knew before. You discover more about the

world in two ways. This is why it is important. There being in fact two worlds one world is you. That. THIS THIS THIS. I'm the OP. I'm a world I'm not the only well that's my problem. But I'm a world and I got I'm out of the obligation to discover. Whatever it is that goes on in that world. I already. Do that. I have got to consent to become a social animal in order to discover and to enlarge what goes on in this world which is all of you and many millions of people both living and dead. Past. And to come. And finally this is where it begins to be difficult. The measure of one's dignity depends on one's estimate of oneself. It really does not depend as so many

people in this country now seem to believe on someone else's estimate. It depends first of all on what you take yourself to be what your real standards are. What you think is right what you think is wrong what you think life is all about what you think life is for. Now you are all very young. And I say that by the way with great humility. You all still and foam. Well let me put it another way you are not finally phone. And you are still to put it brutally. I want to put it brutally because I want to make my point absolutely clear. You are still at the mercy of your elders.

You are still at the mercy of the standards of your elders. Let us go back again to the whole concept of education. And bear in mind then that education does not. And cannot occur in a vacuum. It occurs in a social context. It occurs in a social context and it has social and. For example to take a very brutal example. The children of the Third Reich. Well educated by the Third Reich in order to fulfill the purposes of the said Reich if they did this on a very old principle. The principle referred to all by priest and in the Bible and which every parent somewhere knows. If you give me the child of five years.

I'll have them the rest of his life. So that is that is so what is then got to be aware that one of the purposes of an education your responsibility before your educators is the question. The purpose of this education. In. Let me give you then your education is occurring within a given context. At a certain time in history in a certain country at a certain time in its history. And that in a very crucial time in its history. If for example well be personal about this when I was going to school a school not very unlike this one though. Not as pretty.

I began to be bugged. By the teaching of American history. I began to be bugged by the teaching of American history because. It seemed that history had been accomplished without my presence. And this had a very demoralizing effect on me. When I was your age and younger and had a moralising effect for quite a few years thereafter. Now that may seem to be trivial but speaking out as I were your educator as I were your teacher. My responsibility to you would be to invest you with

all of the morale that I could to prepare you for the terrible storm which is called Life terrible and beautiful. But you must know that it is bold and you don't quite know it and it's my responsibility to make you know it. Is my responsibility also. Speaking now as your educator. To give you as true a version of your history as I can since it is through your sense of your own history that you arrive at your identity and no one is ever riden at a sense of his own to do without it. This is why ancestors are important. We all of us here and we can use that word for the moment but it is really not racial. It is historical and it is personal. Let me speak again about the

aims of a society as opposed now to the aims of education. The aims of a society. And always must be to inculpate in its citizens a certain sense of security. And to discourage its citizens and disturbing the peace. Now this is a necessity and it is even an admirable necessity because we cannot live without society and society as a fact is a very beautiful creation. Nevertheless it is also equally true that all societies have been brought into existence very painfully and very slowly by men. And the

people who are responsible for the creation of societies. Must forever ask questions all questions take nothing whatever for granted. Because that is the only way the front tiers of the world fall back and the world as I said before begins to be enlarged. So it is me that those societies under the obligation to educate all of its citizens. It is also under the obligation to discourage people from thinking too much. Now this is where all of you come in. My responsibility again if I'm your teacher is to teach you to sing. This is not an easy thing to do. If I want you to think I must teach you to think about everything. I must teach you. That there is a reason. For everything you do.

And if you must find that reason. If for example. And I'll I will be personal I'm afraid. I mean it in the best possible way. If I were your teacher. And I say I was dealing with one of you let's say in this case of a new girl about 16 or 17 and I knew that you were beginning to wonder what you were doing in school in the first place and what waited for you outside what good was it to be here since you know nothing that happened to you here to pad you for outside. Knowing your bitterness and not trying for a moment to attend it is not justified. I've yet had to suggest to you that the problems that you face you have to make them personal. And I would

ask you very rude questions. For example I would ask you if you were a boy. Why dress the way you did and if your head was carved I would ask you to ask yourself why. They come back again. This is a very small example of what I mean to the war between society and thought. It is your responsibility as a young American citizens to understand that the standards by which you are confronted and by which many of you are visibly and obviously victimized. And others of you not so obviously but equally the victimized are not the only standards in the world. There is no reason for anybody to want to look like a Greek god that is not the world's only standard of beauty. And furthermore

the virtues to which we all in one way or another a spy on our comfortable life which is to say a middle class life are not the only virtues. I am a very poor family. And there's a vast amount of vitality which is a very definite virtue to be found. In those circumstances. Finally if I were your teacher. I would beg you to insist to fight with me and not let me get away with anything no matter how I may sound. I am really only mortal and I love you very much and who are responsible for you. I am not always right.

We depend on each other. The old and the young to learn from each other. I would beg you to ask me why for example the history books are the way they are. And I would beg you to force me to answer if you asked me. What relevance your education had for concrete problems such as getting an apartment. Or. Moving one. What part of town to another. I would if I were you I would force me. I put me on the spot. Ask me the most difficult questions that you can and I will not be able to answer them in my sponsibility is to hear them. And when you ask your question. And the

question. You begin to know more about what you really think. That's all I have to say now you can ask me questions. At. Oh. Yes. The first question Mr. Bowen was asked.

Do you think that black people in America should learn African history and culture to gain pride and dignity and strength. So when we are confronted by white people we can say that we have a culture which is at the very least equal to white people out of the very most. Well. We're not sure. What it's equal to. Hey. I'm going try to answer your question as clearly as I can. It's not an easy question to answer. I can say first of all yes yes. But. Be careful. Find out all you can but don't fight it out with the intention of proving a point.

Understand this. There is no reason for you to prove yourself to anybody except yourself. When when the world talks about culture. Understand this. It is not talking about culture it is talking about power. The difference between the African cultures which of vanished. And the European cultures which are decaying is that Europe had the power and that is the only difference is that if Europe is civilized and Africans were not. That's a lie. You understand that. And but all you can about what happened when you got here but you haven't got to prove it to anybody. All you gotta do is know it. You're a man baby. A poll. Please don't be shy.

On. The next question. What force do you think more often in this war about education society. Or thought. Well which one spends out more often to tell you the truth. Well I don't know. It's a question it would seem that society wins out. And an obvious invisible way society usually does. Actual history is full of mottoes who went to various desk because society didn't like what they had to say. But on the other hand one remembers most of those people. And one does not remember all societies so it's a question of what you think is most important. I'll tell you what I think. So what is most important. Don't try to say nobody but nobody have a receipt. Next he was honest. Mr. Baldwin and your essay to your nephew. You said

the Negro house to except those that are innocent. Can you tell us how we can distinguish those who are innocent from those who are guilty. I. Hope whatever. You got me. Wait a minute. In the essay you're talking about. I was telling my nephew who was you that say. That he had to accept these innocent people these innocent people. Are your countrymen white Americans. I was trying to suggest to you. That. Though this may be very hard to understand and always will be until you die.

People are not weak it because it will be getting. I know that sounds like a terrible kind of cop out. But the reason I want to suggest it to you. Is because I want you to know. There is nothing that has been done to you that you aren't capable of doing to someone else. And I don't want to see you do that. I want you as I try to tell off and over here to realize. That you've got nothing to prove. And that I would as know who you are and whoever is afraid of you. Is to be pitied. And I hope you can hope to correct him. But I beg you not to hate him. As for who is innocent and who is guilty nobody knows nobody

knows. That's a point as best as I can give you but you keep thinking about it. A. Mr. Baldwin in the same book you wrote that the terrible thing is not the whites must accept the negroes but that the negroes must accept the whites. Please explain this. I will try to explain that. Well it's a terrible effort. At some point in one's life to make as a terrible effort to tell you the truth. Throughout one's life. And you only begin to succeed in this effort I must say when you reduce people. To individuals. And with the same from the mass. The reason it's hot. Is because. Of.

What has been and this is not the fault of any white one white person one is likely to meet. By the white culture has operated and is operated deliberately to demoralise all black people. And then modernization. As in many cases been fatal and all cases has been sinister. The effort therefore that I must make to arrive at my identity. Is mainly in opposition to the fault of the white folks of the world. Under such a tension. It becomes very difficult. And then under such a tension I must repeat it becomes absolutely necessary to deal with people as people only as people because you cannot spend your life isn't my point. Trying to be

revenged for a start of a crime. If you do that you will destroy yourself and you will actuate the crime. This thing this thing to aim at. This is why it is a terribly sad city to accept white people. But a terrible test on the part of white people even hot of necessity to accept Negroes because in a lot of white people who have been negro. They've got to accept their history and something much deeper and worse than that. They have to accept. If I may not be brutal and rude but I mean this you must think about it. If you remember that everything that you will. Do. All your life. And everything that you will say reveals you what I call you doesn't say anything about you. I very rarely. But what I called you says everything about me. Now there is a very good reason which has nothing to do with negroes. Why why people call them nigger. It's

a white invention and a lot of white people to be released from this invention. They will have to discover where this nigger really lives and he lives inside white people and they had to accept him. That stranger within before they said anybody without. That is what I was trying to say. Thanks. I. The next question. What is your opinion of the Black Muslims and other black nationalist movements. I've been in the Black Muslim movement and other black nationalist movements. Let's be precise. I would. Oppose. With all my energy.

You are joining such a movement. For two reasons. If one. Is wearied. By the doctrine of white supremacy and if one is cognizant. Of the crime. Committed in the name of this myth. One cannot possibly now. Turn the matter over. And call it black supremacy and embark on the same terrifying road which will end up in the same place. As a black nationalist one has got to be very careful. Words mean something. If you are black nationalists you must be in Africa. It is a hard fact but it is a fact and one has got to use it. This is your country and I know what you call yourself.

You are an American. You have been you know 400 years and your ancestors helped create this country. I don't think. That you should abandon it for two reasons. You will not find another country and I know because I tried. Something that had this one. And you will not to that extent. You don't have this one you cannot have yourself. And furthermore I must beg you to remember this to think about this very carefully. I know how enraged one can be but at no matter what price you must try to be clear you can lose your temper for second and lose 30 years of your life. Words mean something and that case you must ask yourself what a black nationalist is. And then you must ask yourself if you attempt to join the Black Muslim movement. Is that the Cuban version of history is any truer.

Any sounda version of history which is fiction now. We don't need any moments. Let's try to tell the truth. At. What do you think of Martin Luther King's nonviolent movement in the SO. I do I think of him. Martin Luther King's nonviolent movement in the south as well. I think two things I try to be clear about. I my Martin very much and Mark and Reverend King's work is. Incredible. And I personally. I'm opposed to violence. I will say this too. That mom has done tremendous work in the six years since one camera. And I don't

think you could have done it in any other way. But. If you know what I told you earlier everything must be questioned. The technique of nonviolence. Has obvious limits. It has this limit so that people are not by nature. Non-violent. And. It costs you would cost you if you were down there now. A terrible effort. Which you must which you might not recover. And have to endure what you would have to endure at the hands of those people. Therefore your question to be honest with you finds me very much where you are. I think that the entire strategy has got to be Resort in order to minimize damage to you. I have not yet come up with a satisfactory.

Answer. But I will I will do my best. And you think about it too. OK. A. I. Will girl. Yes. Why isn't American Negro History taught as part of the Western education program. Why isn't American history taught as part of the Western educational program. Well let me say something very rude. But this is the truth. The reason it is not taught. Is because the power structure. Of power structure. And all societies as I said before. I've told the boy before the difference in Europe and Africa was not the one a civilized one was not.

But that one was and one had power and one did not. I meant it. That is also the reason that American history is not taught. You were at one time and I still considered to be by many segments of this population a source of cheap labor. If I am the white man that I have you in a certain place and I need you there that it is important to me not to let you have any suspicion that you don't belong in that place. That is essentially the reason that's that's the root reason. There are reasons on top of it but that's that is the reason that you see what I mean now. If I were your teacher. I would ask you do me a favor and insist that you appear in those textbooks. You know you would have had to burn all the textbooks which now exist. I would insist on it if I were you. For my sake as well as for your you see what I mean.

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