preview

Tolerance In The Fire Next Time

Good Essays

As a society, we are more tolerable towards each other than we have ever been before. Yet, the discriminations and hate speeches are still a part of our lives that we grow to ignore. Then the question that should be asked is why is racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia etc. are still topics of discussion which can be observed in the book The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin as he talks about being in a part of the black community and the struggles he faces. This question can be answered if the option that people got it all wrong at the very beginning is considered. Instead of teaching people to acknowledge each other's existence people were taught to ignore people who were different than themselves, to know that they were there without really …show more content…

In order to overcome racism or homophobia would it be a better solution to accept other people's right to live as equal to ours or create a distinction between our lives and theirs. Because of these reasons that even though tolerance is a step towards bringing people together it is not as effective as acceptance. Barry Schwartz shows how the toleration is just the beginning by stating that perhaps fifty years ago for Jews in America tolerance was good enough: "You don't have to approve of us or even respect us. Just leave us alone, let us use a little corner of your field, and we'll stay out of your way. Even if you don't let us into your prestigious universities and professional schools, as long as you don't bother us, we'll make do." but right now in the world that we are living in minorities demand "Who are you to 'tolerate' me? Who are you to say that my way of life is inferior to yours? Who are you to judge?" (Schwartz) This points to the fact that for example for black people it is not enough anymore to be let by white people to have the same education, use the same toilets and eat in the same places. Which is an example of toleration. White people after many years learned to tolerate black people's right to be in the same space as they are yet the barrier is still there which can be very easily observed through the "Black Lives Matter" movement. Movement which arose as a campaign against violence and systemic racism against black people but turned into a way to see how white people turned a blind eye to racism that is still going on with suggesting "All Lives Matter" and rejected the fact that what black people asked was not more than equality. As we drift further away from the times that slavery was an option, people started to see that it got harder to outwardly hate black people.

Get Access