Baldwin and Staples Response

In "Stranger in The Village" the author, James Baldwin, talks about his experience with the villagers in a small town in Sweden. His experiences here are different from the typical American experience with African Americans. He is treated as an alien, but in a way that is almost foreign to the American way. They treat him literally as an alien. They are amazed with the color of his skin and the texture of his hair. He is a "creature" so unfamiliar to them that they are in nothing but awe. They do not really seem to perceive him as a human. They do not know how to perceive him as human. They are an ignorant people. The people in his town are ignorant through naivety.

Their ignorance differs from the attitudes of the people described in Staples' essay "Black Men and Public Space". Their ignorance comes through more of a racist lens. They have preconceived notions of black men of Staples' race, age, and stature. Where the people of the Swiss village don't even know about black men, people in America have a stereotype of black men. They put black men in the category of criminals or peoples up to no good.

Baldwin is writing to Harper's magazine. His audience is most likely a group of men and women sympathetic to the racial problems African American's face. Since he is not trying to change the political ideology of his audience, his essay sounds more encouraging rather than convicting. He talks about how Americans are pretty much a step ahead from the rest of the world. Whites have more of a kinship with blacks because of their rocky past. They are not stuck in a time of complete ignorance. They are moving toward a growing relationship.

Staples' essay is slightly different in his target. He is writing to Mrs. magazine. His audience is most likely middle-class white women. This essay is slightly more convicting in its argument. He talks about how he has been discriminated against because of his race. He gives instances of when people have been afraid of him, the very people reading this magazine.