In James Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son, his section on the Harlem Ghetto focuses primarily on the influences and effects of black media and anti-Semitism amongst blacks. He touches on how the addition of parks and playgrounds made it seem that they were happy to outsiders but really it didn’t do much for them.

One thing that I found interesting was the idea of the Negro Press, “a press devoted entirely to happenings in or about the Negro World (60).” This would be something like today’s TV channel BET (Black Entertainment Television). What I was thinking about when I read this though, was that if black people felt segregated against during the 1950’s, wouldn’t creating a press only about themselves be further segregating the black and white communities? Baldwin does state that there was indifference and hostility against blacks in the “White press”, but I felt that by black press going to the other extreme it only increased segregation. Today, just like before, the news is still sensationalized but I don’t feel that there is as much indifference or hostility towards minorities.

The fact that two minority groups hated each other also surprised me. Both the Jews and the Blacks disliked each other for stereotypes that white Americans had created. One would think that two groups who are both hated on by White Americans would stick together since they feel similar struggles. However the way Baldwin describes it, they both tried to be as “white” as possible by hating each other.