In the video of the debate between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley, it talks a bit about the possibility of one person’s sense of reality being eliminated for another. In a quote from James Baldwin, “whatever one’s reaction to this proposition is, has to be the question of whether or not civilizations can be considered, as such, equal, or whether one’s civilization has the right to overtake and subjugate, and, in fact, to destroy another”.
I feel that this is somewhat similar and different from Gloria Anzaldua’s piece How to Tame a Wild Tongue. The similarity I feel is the clashing between two different civilizations and between two languages in Anzaldua’s case. Baldwin is speaking of the possibility of one person’s way of life or civilization overtaking someone else’s. The difference I see from Anzaldua is that she speaks of the combination of her two cultures and how they make a culture of their own. Baldwin’s comment about domination is a lot more bleak as well.
E367: Writing and Diversity 