Group 2 post 3/31

The 1950s and 1960s saw various forms of protest from the black community in the wake of continued racism in the South and elsewhere. A theme that sticks out in the readings, especially the piece written by Diane Nash, is how peaceful protests were symbols of love and were “applied religion” (361). Rather than outpourings of hate, these demonstrations, such as Freedom Rides and lunch counter sit-ins, were acts of love that the black community had for itself and even the individuals that were oppressing them. Nash argues that if racist whites would recognize “God within men,” then they would see the “dignity” in all humans, even black, and treat everyone truly equally (362). Most powerfully, Nash recognizes that these limitations that white society has placed upon blacks is only because of a “fear of the unknown” (364). Hate and anger are reactions that white people had to the peaceful protests, but these emotions are simply manifestations of a deep-seated fear of not knowing what could happen if the two races integrated.

            In the piece “Stranger in the Village,” James Baldwin describes his time in a Swiss village. No one in the town had seen a black person before, and they all thought “black men come from Africa” (161). This ended up in Baldwin getting strange looks and being jeered at by children on the street. However, he tried to act polite, because a central part of “the American Negro’s education is that he must make people like him” (161). Baldwin realizes that this cannot happen until people want to like him. This is why both peaceful and violent protests have a hard time working—either way, a protest cannot work because the “routine worked about as well in this situation as it had in the situation for which it was designed” (161). A protest cannot work until the situation allows it to break through the preconceived prejudices about a people. Baldwin goes on to explain how to be white, one has already been attached to those who have written and controlled history.
From the Stranger in the Village passage, the author’s ideas about white supremacy was deeply compelling. One of the author’s strongest arguments was the fact white supremacy is simply ingrained in American culture that traces back to the conquesting ideas of Europe. It is in the European culture that their superior ideas originate. The author explains the difference of white people’s first encounter with black people and black people’s first encounter with white people. “The white man takes the astonishment as a tribute, for he arrives to conquer and convert the natives” (164) because he has arrived there already with a superior mindset. The author also focuses on the white supremacists distorted views of morality. White society and European culture removed the humanity from black people in order to justify their actions and “because it is easier for him  thus to preserve his simplicity and avoid being called to account for crimes committed by his forefathers, or his neighbors”(166). The origins of the white supremacy came from Europe and were implemented in America, and an ideology that has lasted hundreds of years is difficult to eradicate quickly or completely.