The theme of race and justice is what we’re currently exploring in this class. I think that it is important to be aware of issues related to race, and understand that many injustices occur every day because of the way someone looks or their ethnic background. As college students we must posses a basic understanding of social aspects of the country we live in, those recent and those historic. The civil rights movement and Martin Luther King are the most known examples of the fight for equality which would not be based on skin-color. However, there are also other people who have taken a stand against injustice, like Leonard Peltier and Paul Butler, as well as others, whom we’ve learned about in this class. Paul Butler’s “A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice” was very interesting. Tim Wise’s “Selling the Police” was equally thought-provoking. Last year, I had the pleasure of reading James Baldwin’s “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” I think that his essay would fit in very well with the types of ideas explored in this class, if it were to be added to the reading list. Baldwin explores the cultural impact on social interactions, the roots of African-American Ebonics, and the role which language plays in expressing our perception of the surrounding world. I highly recommend Baldwin’s essay to anyone interested in doing further reading on something related to the theme of the class. James Baldwin was a very exceptional writer, and produced many other works related to race during the time of the civil rights movement. Nevertheless, I feel that that his work can be relevant today, and would help students generate more of their own ideas about what race and justice mean.
Image credited to: North Lawndale College Prep Charter High School http://www.nlcphs.org/Academics/English/Pictures/baldwin.jpg
