A Talk to Teachers

The version of “A Talk to Teachers” used for this guide is from the Zinn Education Website, which classifies this speech as being key to what the organization designates as the People’s Movement: 1961-1974. What about Baldwin’s speech specifies that this is an essay addressing struggles that can be classified as being part of the People’s Movement? What “people” is Baldwin referencing? What historic events from that time span can directly relate to this speech?

The same year that “A Talk to Teachers” was written, Baldwin released The Fire Next Time, a national bestseller and a text that was central to the civil rights movement. Baldwin opens the book with a middle stanza from Rudyard Kipling’s “The White Man’s Burden” (1899), a poem that is considered to be an ode to imperialism:

Take up the White Man’s burden—

Ye dare not stoop to less—

Nor call too loud on Freedom

To cloke your weariness;

By all ye cry or whisper,

By all ye leave or do,

The silent, sullen peoples

Shall weigh your gods and you (Lines 41-48).

Why would Baldwin utilize this poem to set the stage for a book that zeroes in on themes of equality? What about this poem relates to “A Talk to Teachers”? Does Baldwin discuss the concept of “white man’s burden” in “A Talk To Teachers”? If so, how?

In the second paragraph, Baldwin admits that he is slightly intimidated by teachers since he is not a teacher himself. Is this true, does he truly feel intimidated? Is Baldwin a teacher? If so, how? Is the humility within this statement meant to be ironic, or is it meant to be sincere? Is Baldwin assuming the singular role of teacher, student, or outsider by writing the speech? Is he assuming more than one role?

In 1971, James Baldwin sat down with poet Nikki Giovanni to discuss race and identity. In this dialogue, he said:

It’s not the world that was my oppressor, because what the world does to you, if the world does it to you long enough and effectively enough, you begin to do to yourself. You become a collaborator, an accomplice of your own murderers, because you believe the same things they do. They think it’s important to be white and you think it’s important to be white; they think it’s a shame to be black and you think it’s a shame to be black. And you have no corroboration around you of any other sense of life (Popova, Maria. “James Baldwin and Nikki Giovani’s Extraordinary Forgotten Conversation About the Language of Love and What it Takes to Be Truly Empowered.” The Marginalian).

How does this idea of becoming a collaborator to one’s own oppression relate to “A Talk To Teachers”? How does it tie into Baldwin’s claim that children have awareness?

After Baldwin talks about how man is a social animal, he goes on to say, “A society, in turn, depends on certain things which everyone within that society takes for granted” (Paragraph 2). What certain things is Baldwin talking about? What is it about individuals that society takes for granted? In turn, what do individuals take for granted about society?

Baldwin discusses the “silent people”—in this case, the porter and the maid—who help a society function. How can you relate the categorization of “silent people” to a modern day context? Who are the overlooked but vital individuals who help society function in our age of technology and artificial intelligence? How are these people being heard or starting to be heard in contemporary strides towards more equal civil rights?

Baldwin uses Park Avenue as an archetypal symbol of wealth and prosperity, as well as a signifier of the racist lines that separate the wealthy white populations from the silent and impoverished populations of Black and Latinx peoples. What street or city in contemporary times represents this same type of unspoken but universally understood separation? How does that street or city represent power, prestige, wealth, and the solidification and entrenchment of racism in America?

Considerable time is spent in the essay on discussing white myths about heroic ancestors whose heroism is actually false. Has this attitude changed in recent years? Do students have a more in-depth understanding of history, or are the falsehoods still in play about America’s founders and legislators? Has room been made for non-white stories, or does white history still have a monopoly in education?