“A Report from Occupied Terriyory” by James Baldwin.

James Baldwin’s article includes many cultural information such as the mistreatment of black people by figures of authorities which seems to be a common occurrence, the perception that black people were inferior to whites, the increase of violence happening every Sunday, amongst many other repeating rituals and behavior. A fieldworker would ask why are black people viewed as inferior, why are they being constantly beaten by authorities figures? A fieldworker would study not just the individuals but society as a whole. Why have this heinous custom been adopted by white people and why has it been stigmatized. A fieldworker would reach out to those committing hate crimes against black people and ask why do they feel the need to beat black people senselessly without a reason. A fieldworker would observe the society of Harlem and maybe even get involved assuming that they themselves aren’t part of the problem. Other sources of information that a fieldworker might use to penetrate the insider perspective would be to talk to those who are being abused by a system that was supposed to serve everyone equally. Interviewing those affected might garner an empathetic reaction from the fieldworker and an understanding of the effect of racism in society. A fieldworker would also look for ways to trace back to the root of the deep-seated racial inequality that plagues society. An important fact is that fieldworkers would be able to challenge the authorities in demanding for evidence for the crime the Harlem six were wrongly accused of.

Comments ( 3 )

  1. Olivia Davila
    it is depressing that we still police brutality like this still happening today. It shows that not much has changed.
  2. Elena Bertolotti
    America was built on slavery therefore when you mentioned that for a fieldworker to understand they would need to trace the root of racial inequality in our society, I thought that was really insightful. I think to understand the racial inequality you need to go back to the beginning to understand how and why it started.
  3. bethanie corona
    I appreciate how specific your field working questions are and I feel like they would derive a lot of insight from different perspectives on the issue of police brutality. I also feel that the way you extended your questions to understand how the police feel about their hateful actions against minorities is an important point. Furthermore, I concur with your response that "fieldworkers would be able to challenge the authorities" by demanding solid evidence for the crime the Harlem six were wrongly accused of as somewhat as a call to action and not just an analysis of the case. Posts

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