Stranger in the Village
"STRANGER IN THE VILLAGE"
To start off, this essay is the first hand account of James Baldwin’s experiences in a tiny Swiss village 4 hours outside of Milan. Lets begin on who James Baldwin is, Baldwin is an African American male who has recently left the United States to come observe an know more about the relation of racism and societies. Baldwin is very proud of his African American heritage even though it has become more segregated then ever in the early part of the civil rights movement. The village is so small that is almost unknown as claimed by Baldwin, he goes on to describe is as a unattractive town that is stuck in the past; to add on to that the town seem to be very primitive as claimed in this passage “In the village there is no movie house, no bank, no library, no theater; very few radios, one jeep, one station wagon; and at the moment, one typewriter, mine, an invention which the woman next door to me here had never seen.” Baldwin Paragraph 2. Baldwin being a African American male, is the first experiences many of the people of the small Swiss village have encountered, that being a factor can be at times why the village seems very racial towards him, considering the fact he is the first of his kind to step foot into the village. I will go on to explain the emotions that Baldwin starts to feel on the racism expressed in the essay and the way it touches on some of the modern day struggles that go on. In the 4th paragraph you start to witness the rage building up from some of the villagers actions. With one case being the children calling Baldwin a “Neger!” this can be compared to the civil rights movement in the middle of the 1950’s when racial separation was very common in modern United States, when racial slurs would be yelled at “Black Students” who did not blend in with the surrounding. Baldwin shows us that because of Americans, black men were looked down upon, and the word "nigger" was created by Americans who failed to realize
To start off, this essay is the first hand account of James Baldwin’s experiences in a tiny Swiss village 4 hours outside of Milan. Lets begin on who James Baldwin is, Baldwin is an African American male who has recently left the United States to come observe an know more about the relation of racism and societies. Baldwin is very proud of his African American heritage even though it has become more segregated then ever in the early part of the civil rights movement. The village is so small that is almost unknown as claimed by Baldwin, he goes on to describe is as a unattractive town that is stuck in the past; to add on to that the town seem to be very primitive as claimed in this passage “In the village there is no movie house, no bank, no library, no theater; very few radios, one jeep, one station wagon; and at the moment, one typewriter, mine, an invention which the woman next door to me here had never seen.” Baldwin Paragraph 2. Baldwin being a African American male, is the first experiences many of the people of the small Swiss village have encountered, that being a factor can be at times why the village seems very racial towards him, considering the fact he is the first of his kind to step foot into the village. I will go on to explain the emotions that Baldwin starts to feel on the racism expressed in the essay and the way it touches on some of the modern day struggles that go on. In the 4th paragraph you start to witness the rage building up from some of the villagers actions. With one case being the children calling Baldwin a “Neger!” this can be compared to the civil rights movement in the middle of the 1950’s when racial separation was very common in modern United States, when racial slurs would be yelled at “Black Students” who did not blend in with the surrounding. Baldwin shows us that because of Americans, black men were looked down upon, and the word "nigger" was created by Americans who failed to realize