ESSAY #2-“Fifth Avenue, Uptown” by James Baldwin Literature Essay

Student Name: Jialin Li
Course: Composition I
Instructor: Professor Stephens
Date: 8, Nov 2018
ESSAY #2-“Fifth Avenue, Uptown” by James Baldwin
In James Baldwin's "Fifth Avenue, Uptown," the writer focuses on the projects of Harlem mainly populated by the African American community. Cities are separated from nature, and they reflect how people have created them, and in the case of Harlem, hopelessness and racial division is all too common in a place that is soulless. Baldwin provides an insight from his perspective as a Harlem residence to paint a black man’s view of his city. New York is a racially segregated city with sharp racial differences, where, the color of one's skin and their economic status determines where they live, and how the city treats them.
To Baldwin, Harlem represents the problem of urban decay, just like in many other racially segregated enclaves in New York, like Queens, Brooklyn, Long Island, Staten Island and The Bronx. All of which, at first was conceived as a solution to public housing, but later transformed to poor neighborhoods as a result of the population pressure, and economic status of their inhabitants, only places the Negroes were allowed to live. “Harlem got its first private project, Riverton---which is now, naturally, a slum---about twelve years ago because at that time Negroes were not allowed to live in Stuyvesant Town” (Baldwin 4).
Harlem conveys desolation, but even as there is physical griminess, it is still home to those who came before Baldwin and even those he left behind. It plays a vital role in the American landscape, and Baldwin motioned Fifth Avenue as being "wide, filthy, hostile (Baldwin 1). In the writer's old neighborhood, there is anonymity, alienation and invisibility were common among African Americans, which represents the struggles of different forces like equality, justice, and honor. Harlem is described from its psychological significance of geographical space and the environment in which its inhabitants reside.
This environment reflects the cultural spaces of the Blacks in Harlem and is portrayed as those living in the margins. The projects of Harlem are hideous and likened to a prison, but merely revitalizing them would not necessarily improve conditions as the popular housing was still cheerless like prisons (Baldwin 3). According to Fernley (61) policies of urban renewal have mostly focused on the Harlem was at its cultural peak in the1920s contrasted with urban blight from then on when the black population increased.
Policing a ghetto necessitated the law enforcement officers to be oppressive, and the policemen did not understand the place and were resented by the residents (Baldwin 4). Even the people in different Harlem neighborhood are separated from the surrounding communities, and there is an antagonism between law enforcement and the residents, as a result of strong suspicions between the two. The projects were segregated from the outside world, and the people are not part of mainstream society.
Economic exploitation is strife in Harlem, from the fact that the neighborhood is not adequately maintained. For instance, Baldwin stated that blacks owned very little in Harlem, and for those who did they were mainly interested in profits. The monotonous housing projects of Harlem are in similar designs with little spaces, but Harlem remains an integral part of back history in New York and a mecca of black culture and renaissance (Fearnley 72)
Blacks are segregated in New York, and they do not have a right to choose where to live in. Baldwin was concerned that segregation of the urban blacks made it more difficult for people to move on as there was a sense of hopelessness in the housing projects. The Harlem projects were associated with urban decay and poor blacks in New York, Baldwin linked African American history with the US history before and during the 60s.
Works Cited
Baldwin, James. Fifth Avenue, Uptown. Esquire, 1960, July.
Fearnley, Andrew M. "when the Harlem Renaissance became vogue: periodization and the organization of postwar American historiography." Modern Intellectual History 11.1 (2014): 59-87.
Composition I Grading Rubric

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