https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs Made with a creative frenzy en-us 2017-11-06 20:54:32 UTC 2021-05-12 11:54:24 UTC hello@padlet.com 20622441 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803228682 "And if His love was so great, and if He loved all His children, why were we, the blacks, cast down so far?" (31). ]]> 2020-10-05 14:32:13 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803228682 2068161 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803230107 "The world is white and they are black" (25).

Obviously, this is very clearly how the society is laid out during Baldwin's time but how does Baldwin's sympathy connect to recognizing that the world is against them?]]> 2020-10-05 14:32:32 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803230107 2042238 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803230599 "Black people, mainly, look down or look up but do not look at each other, not at you, and white, people, mainly, look away." (p.30)]]> 2020-10-05 14:32:38 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803230599 2125787 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803230907 "They had the judges, the juries, the shotguns, the law-in a word, power. But it was a criminal power, to be feared but not respected, and to be outwitted in any way whatever" (23).]]> 2020-10-05 14:32:42 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803230907 2055532 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803231199 Was this question directed towards himself, or directed towards his readers? Why would he ask this question if, all this years later, he probably found the answer? If not for himself, who was the question intended for?]]> 2020-10-05 14:32:46 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803231199 2054727 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803231766 "And all of this is happening in the richest and freest country in the world, and in the middle of the twentieth century" (55).

What does Baldwin suggest about the power structure of America? Who is evaluated as the richest and the freest, and who is excluded from this evaluation? ]]> 2020-10-05 14:32:52 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803231766 2159334 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803232031 “I realized that the bible had been written by white men. I knew that, according to many Christians, I was a descendant of Ham...and therefore predestined to be a slave...my fate had been sealed forever, from the beginning of time” (36) ]]> 2020-10-05 14:32:56 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803232031 2189208 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803232584 "Therefore, whatever white people do not know about Negroes reveals, precisely and inexorably, what they do not know about themselves" (44)]]> 2020-10-05 14:33:04 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803232584 2061103 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803233306 "I had been well conditioned by the world in which I grew up" (24).

The conditioning mentioned by Baldwin is illustrative of the fact that the system of oppression was effective in degradation of people of color and was effective in teaching them that their place in society was below white people  and never above.  ]]> 2020-10-05 14:33:14 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803233306 2215306 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803233689 ". . . a civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless." (55)]]> 2020-10-05 14:33:19 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803233689 2021632 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803237190 "It is this individual uncertainty on the part of white American men and women, this ability to renew themselves at the fountain of their own lives, that makes the discussion, let alone elucidation, of any conundrum-that is, any reality-so supremely difficult" (43)

Through strong word choice, such as by utilizing "elucidation", Baldwin illustrates how many whites keep to themselves, ignoring meaningful experiences in their lives. Because whites are so reserved, it is hard for them to connect with black's appreciations and acceptance of themselves. d]]> 2020-10-05 14:34:05 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803237190 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803238774 "the realization that a civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked only that they be spineless" (55). 
Who was the audience Baldwin was targeting with this quote an why might he try and use it?]]> 2020-10-05 14:34:26 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803238774 2033657 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803239237 "I realized that the Bible had been written by white men. I knew that, according to many Christians, I was a descendant of Ham, who had been cursed, and that I was therefore destined to be a slave" (36).

- Baldwin is arguing that the Bible wasn't written for black people. For him, Christianity wasn't accepting. He argues that the Bible was written by whites, who denounced blacks as descendants of Ham. 
- In this section, Baldwin has a bitter tone as he realizes Christianity, a religion he put his faith into for many years, was never meant to comfort him or provide him joy. ]]> 2020-10-05 14:34:31 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803239237 2034241 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803239367 2020-10-05 14:34:33 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803239367 2052701 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803239991 "The principles were Blindness, Loneliness, and Terror, ... I would love to believe that the principles were Faith, Hope, and Charity," (31)

Do these principles, both Loneliness, blindness, and terror, and faith, hope, and charity, affect the way that he reflects on the world compared to other people and do other people have the same idea of what the principles should be like Baldwin?]]> 2020-10-05 14:34:41 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803239991 2056141 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803240266 "Crime became real, for example - for the first time - not as a possibility but as the possibility" (21). When a society has forced many of its members to resort to crime just to survive, it has failed. During Baldwin's time, this was true, their society had failed them, is this still true today?]]> 2020-10-05 14:34:45 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803240266 2217064 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803240938 "...but there is no reason that black men should be expected to be more patient, more forbearing, more farseeing than whites; indeed, quite the contrary" (p 59)


]]> 2020-10-05 14:34:54 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803240938 2055532 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803243091 There is a certain power behind this quote. Going from hatred to pity, is something that holds so much movement and impact. To pity a population that has done nothing but hate and make life miserable for others is a shift in the tide. ]]> 2020-10-05 14:35:22 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803243091 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803243408 "In the United States, violence and heroism have been made synonymous except when it comes to blacks," (58)
Evita Kanaan]]> 2020-10-05 14:35:25 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803243408 2044109 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803243679 "I was forced, reluctantly, to realize that the Bible itself had been written by men. and translated by men out of languages I could not read, and I was already, without quite admitting it to myself, terribly involved with the effort of putting words on paper"( Baldwin 35).]]> 2020-10-05 14:35:29 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803243679 21641101 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803245361 "Everything inflamed me, and that was bad enough, but I myself had also become a source of fire and temptation"(25).]]> 2020-10-05 14:35:51 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803245361 2027135 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803246046 "One would never defeat one's circumstances by working and saving one's pennies; one would never, by working, acquire that many pennies" (21).]]> 2020-10-05 14:36:00 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803246046 2068161 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803252608 "The fear that I heard in my father's voice, for example, when he realized that I really believed I could do anything a white boy could" (26).]]> 2020-10-05 14:37:22 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803252608 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803323239 How does Baldwins approach to questioning older teachings of religion aid him in his search for moral righteousness within Christianity?]]> 2020-10-05 14:51:33 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803323239 20622441 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803330443 "Black people, mainly, look down or look up but do not look at each other, not at you, and white people, mainly, look away" (30). ]]> 2020-10-05 14:53:04 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803330443 20622441 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803345109 "there was no love in church. It was a mask for hatred and self-hatred and despair" (39).

]]> 2020-10-05 14:56:20 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803345109 20622441 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803350330 "Therefore, whatever white people do not know about Negroes reveals, precisely and inexorably, what they do not know about themselves" (44).]]> 2020-10-05 14:57:28 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803350330 20622441 https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803357501 "Because if I should speak, no one would believe me" (53).]]> 2020-10-05 14:59:03 UTC https://padlet.com/sespence/tg1dco2waqcs/wish/803357501