Black & Racism: Exploring Identity and Race in American Society

This essay delves into the complexities of Black identity, racism, and cultural context within the American landscape. Drawing upon the insights of James Baldwin, the essay examines how the concept of home is perceived and defined, particularly in relation to the experiences of Black individuals. It explores the historical context of slavery and the ongoing struggle for integration and desegregation, highlighting the challenges of moral self-examination and the search for a safe space. Furthermore, the essay analyzes how writers and filmmakers situate cultural identity and social location, examining the economic and social structures that have shaped the experiences of Black people in the Western world, with a specific focus on America. The essay also examines the impact of the western world on the Black community, and the failure of solidarity to address the slavery issue. The essay uses Baldwin's perspectives on the treatment of Black individuals as a central theme.

Running head: BLACK & RACISM
Being Black in America
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

BLACK & RACISM
Question 1. What constitute the nation(s) of home? How do writers talk about home as
a place and space?
According to James Baldwin, the blacks from the South Africa were treated like
animals and were making the other people richer, which is not a good constitution of
civilisation. The speaker talks of freedom as an overused term and relates the situation of the
black people substantially to the word ‘slavery’ (Baldwin 2018). The speaker correlates the
American country as an undefined home with no limits, depths or heights. The fight for
integration and desegregation is what constitutes the basics for the blacks living in America.
Moral self-examination has created difficulties for internal revolution and only the place that
holds no racism can be defined as the safe place or home.
Question 2. How do specific writers/ filmmakers situate cultural identity and
experiences of social location in the west?
James Baldwin had critically highlighted the identity of the blacks, imperialism and
race in the western world, especially in the America. The economic arrangement of the
western world by the western world is highlighted as too expensive for the blacks and the
same region has consolidated its power to rule over the blacks, who suffered the most. The
nature of created differences were evidently deliberate and the failure in showcasing
solidarity was the biggest regret in the speaker’s life, as it could have effectively ended
slavery a long time back. The speaker criticises of being brought up and treated as ‘mule’
(Baldwin 2014).

BLACK & RACISM
References
Baldwin, James. "James Baldwin And America's "Racial Problem" 2014.. Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnIjXmfTSYg.
Baldwin, James. 2018. "Author James Baldwin On Being Black In America -
1960". Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cplZdcp0fQY.