Parikh 1

Kevin Parikh

AP English Language

Mr. Yerkes

23 February 2017

Talk to Teachers Essay

In 1963, a time when African Americans were still struggling for civil rights, James

Baldwin delivered a speech titled Talk to Teachers in which he talked about the paradox of

education where people become aware of the injustices and oppression committed by the

very same system that educated them in the first place. His purpose in writing this was to

convey to teachers that they can empower their students by letting them know of the

oppression taking place. He conveys his purpose throughout his speech by using changing

tones to show how he is feeling, pathos to appeal to the audiences emotion, and repetition of

key phrases.

Baldwin opens his speech with a rather authoritative tone, telling teachers that It is

your responsibility to change society if you think of yourself as an educated person. He

adopts this authoritative tone to remind his main audience, teachers, on their duty in their

profession. Here in the beginning is also where he mentions one of his key points, the

paradox of education in which people become aware of oppression taking place by the very

same system that educated them. He even appeals to the emotions of the audience by saying

that their society is backward, causing the readers to feel reflective.

Baldwin then moves to using a combination of repetition and pathos to convey his

intent to the audience. He uses the phrase I would repeatedly followed by what he would do

to boost the self-confidence of African American students if he was given an opportunity to

teach. He does this not only to show the audience his compassion but to also give them
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ideas. He also employs pathos in this section by mentioning the appalling stereotypes of

African Americans portrayed in television, comic books, and movies. His use of pathos is

effective because someone who might have believed the stereotypes they saw on television

would be forced to rethink their views. His tone in this section is gentle and serious. He uses

this tone as to not scold his audience but rather to explain to them the oppression taking place

and how they can help fight against it.

In the last section of his speech, Baldwin continues the use of many of the devices he

has utilized throughout his paper. A particular good use of pathos is when he uses the

example of people who judge Fidel Castro purely off that fact that he was a Communist. He

explains how if you focus on only aspect of a person, all the other parts of them will get

drowned out. He uses this example hoping that people can keep the same open mindset

when interacting with African Americans. He also shifts to a slightly more positive tone by

saying America is a land of tremendous potential and tremendous energy. However, he

soon after switches back to a rather bleak tone by stating that the same energy could lead to

the destruction of the United States.

In conclusion, Baldwin attempts to help teachers interact with their African American

students better. He employs the use of shifting tones, repeated phrases, and appeal to

emotion to convey this message.