Racism In David Simon's Notes Of A Native Son

The next set of essays is autobiographical and deal with the urban experience of African-Americans in places like Harlem. starting with a depiction of just how horrible things are in Harlem. The Harlem Ghetto Poor services, high rents, staggering food costs, and abuse of black and white politicians. We feel as if we are in the world described by David Simon in The Wire. Indeed we are in many ways and it is tragic how little of what Baldwin describes has changed in the last fifty years. What we end up with is trapping people. Baldwin explores this social prison through an analysis of black anti-Semitism. He see it as a reflection of black bitterness toward whites produced by a racist society. “The Negro’s outlets are desperately

In his dilemma he turns first upon himself and then upon whatever most represents to him his own emasculation. Yet and here is making the same point he makes in critiquing Native Son) bitterness and anger is not all of this defines the urban experience. “Journey to Atlanta” considers some jazz musicians who toured the South. There they taken advantage of by local political workers of the Progressive Party to canvas neighborhoods. Of course, the lesson here is that these skilled musicians essentially seen as their skin color. “Notes of a Native Son” is the story of Baldwin’s father and his death. These memoirs intersect with some of the brutal realities in Harlem, including the indifference of some of the whites he encounters. Baldwin use these small events to make explicable the race riot that engulfed Harlem at the same time that his father died. “The avenues , side streets, bars, billiard halls, hospitals, police stations, and even the playgrounds of Harlem — not to mention the houses of correction, the jails, and the morgue — testified to the potency of the poison while remaining silent as to the efficiency