During the time that Baldwin produced this piece of literature, it was a time of struggle for African-Americans hoping to obtain racial equality. African-Americans were confused as to which path to go to obtain racial equality: violence or peacefulness. Many of the older generations of African-Americans prefer to go the peaceful route while the younger generations of African-Americans prefer to use force to obtain equality, leading to Baldwin’s argument in his letter to his nephew. In his writing, Baldwin hopes to persuade his nephew to not use force to obtain equality, citing various references from socialization to common sense. Through this, he hopes to illustrate the point to his nephew that it is pointless to force the white people to accept them. Baldwin understands that equality cannot be obtained so easily after generations of suffering through the form of slavery.

In his letter, Baldwin is primarily speaking to his nephew, but to others with the same thoughts as his nephew as well. When written, he doesn’t address the “you” in the familiarity of a relative. Rather, it’s as if the “you” he’s speaking of is to the people trying to use force to enact equality. That is more explicitly felt in the phrase: “You were born where you were born and faced the future that you faced because you were black and for no other reason” (9). He’s speaking to every Black person that feels the unjust.

The constraint in Baldwin’s piece is the fact that he cannot see the future. Due to this fact, he wouldn’t be able to believe the fact that Barack Obama, a black person would be able to become President. In a sense, Baldwin sees no hope for a future in which a Black person can hold the same possessions as a White person. Baldwin hopes to make the reader to let go of the thoughts of equality and to simply accept the facts as facts.