Response Paper: James
Baldwin
General Prompt: To look at American culture
or society and how Baldwin and his writings impacted or contributed to it.
What
to do: Point to 1-2 specific
passages in at least one of Baldwin’s essays, “The Harlem Ghetto” pgs.57-72
or “Notes of a Native Son” pgs.85-114,
and/or also quote from or refer to either The Price of the Ticket documentary or The Jewish Americans
documentary clip to support your ideas. If it fits your focus, you may use
Podhoretz’s or other assigned articles that match well with your topic. This
paper will have both your personal opinions and reflections, and an argument,
with quoted material to support your viewpoint
Tip: Think about what interested you or
struck you as surprising. If you start with your own interest, you will
probably find a link. Be certain to be cognizant of the date and time period of
the essay, and the date and time period of a clip from the documentary. We covered
a time period roughly from 1948 to 2013 (if you include Podhoretz’s most recent
essay), and up to 2017 if you read Giraldi’s essay.
General ideas
to consider, and then to make more
specific:
How
are Biblical stories or religion related to the Black and Jewish community
according to Baldwin and the clips from The Jewish-Americans
documentary? Has the relationship between Black and Jewish people in
America changed since the time Baldwin was writing and publishing? Have relationships
altered? [See below for possible
approaches.]
For ex.: The Jewish and Black relationship has always
been a problematic one, with various scholars putting forth various theories
for why that is. Some Blacks have said
Jews over-identified with Blacks in their struggles and shouldn’t have. Others
said Blacks envied Jews because they integrated well, and were largely successful,
or as Podhoretz discusses that when he was a boy, as a Jew, he envied black
boys for various characteristics he did not have. “In the Harlem Ghetto,” it is
clear that the Jews were the scapegoats, just as the Blacks were in Georgia (as
Baldwin says). He is saying this is as
unfair to the Jews as it is to the Blacks.
He does, however, have harsh criticism (and uses the word “hate”) for
the landlord-tenant relationship, and for Jews owning the businesses (and, in
his mind, not being ‘fair’) in Harlem. In the
Jewish-Americans documentary we see
that Jews, in particular, northern Jews, and those who were Reformed Jews, who
believed strongly in social justice, were fighting for the Blacks, primarily in
the South. Many ended up hurt and bewildered
when the Blacks “sent them packing.” The
relationship between Blacks and Jews became even more strained over school and
affirmative action issues, where they often were on opposing sides (which is
seen, in part, in the clips from The
Jewish-Americans documentary).
Perhaps the relationship today is more of connection? Or just neutral?
(See the end paragraph to Stephen Whitfield’s article, “Black Like Us” from Jewish History
2008
Kanopy has a documentary for Jewish Americans and the price of a ticket but in order to save time I recommend using this attached web article. There are clips to Price of a ticket which is basically a biography of James Baldwin and his role as a writer during the civil rights movement and his critiques of other activist writers at the time. He also expatriated to France but came back to America because he felt an obligation to participate in the social progress that was being made and landmark legislation that was being created to support integration and equality in America. If you can speak generally about the documentary I will happily provide a quote
