Baldwin begins “A Talk to Teachers,” by saying that he is
not a teacher. He has, however, been a child, who saw early on that what the histories,
and etc, that the teachers were teaching was a false
one.
By bringing in his own perspective as a child—a
skeptical one, whom teachers may not have realized they had—he redefines students and
teachers too “because,” as he says in his essay. “if I am not what I’ve been told I am,
then it means that you’re not what you thought you were
either!”
His overall message to teachers can be found in
these lines:
It means that well-meaning white liberals place
themselves in great danger when they try to deal with Negroes as though they were
missionaries. It means, in brief, that a great price is demanded to liberate all those
silent people so that they can breathe for the first time and tell you what they think
of you.
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