It is dangerous to be an American Negro male. America has never wanted its Negroes to be men, and does not, generally, treat them as men. It treats them as mascots, pets, or things.
James A. BaldwinRead
It happened, as many things do, imperceptibly, in many ways at once. I date it - the slow crumbling of my faith, the pulverization of my fortress - from the time, about a year after I had begun to preach, when I began to read again. I justified this desire by the fact that I was still in school, and I began, fatally, with Dostoyevsky.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a gradual loss of faith through the influence of reading profound literature.
James A. Baldwin reflects on the subtle and multifaceted process of losing faith, particularly in the context of intellectual exploration. He relates this experience to his reading of Dostoyevsky, which he views as a pivotal moment that initiated the slow disintegration of the strong beliefs he once held, illustrating how exposure to new ideas can challenge and reshape one's worldview.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about the impact of literature on personal beliefs.
It is dangerous to be an American Negro male. America has never wanted its Negroes to be men, and does not, generally, treat them as men. It treats them as mascots, pets, or things.
The white man discovered the Cross by way of the Bible, but the black man discovered the Bible by way of the Cross.
Those kids aren't dumb. But the people who run these schools want to make sure they don't get smart: they are really teaching the kids to be slaves.
Experience, which destroys innocence, also leads one back to it.
The reason people think it's important to be white is that they think it's important not to be black.
The trick is to love somebody.... If you love one person, you see everybody else differently.
America is a fundamentally good country. We have good people with good values who want to do the right thing. But the structures of power that exist are working to their own ends to extend their capability at the expense of the freedom of all publics.
For forty years, I have devoted myself to the cause of the people's revolution with but one aim in view - the elevation of China to a position of freedom and equality among the nations.
You wear a mask for so long, you forget who you were beneath it.
If man were immortal he could be perfectly sure of seeing the day when everything in which he had trusted should betray his trust, and, in short, of coming eventually to hopeless misery. He would break down, at last, as every good fortune, as every dynasty, as every civilization does. In place of this we have death.
It was easy enough to despise the world, but decidedly difficult to find any other habitable region.
We see ourselves in terms of yesterday and today. Our Heavenly Father sees us in terms of forever.
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