I attended the speech, How To Be Decent And White In An Era Of Black Rage, given by Leonard Pitts. Pitts presented the audience with loads of information pertaining to the book The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin. Personally. I learned quite a few new things from his speech. However, his interpretation of innocence really caught my attention. I learned to think about the use of innocence in The Fire Next Time in a completely new way. Pitts interpreted innocence as being the thing that constitutes the crimes against African Americans. Pitts connected this idea of innocence to many of his own real life experiences with black oppression. I have been made aware of these numerous accounts of racism being portrayed by the media. The idea that innocence of all things was the exact cause of these horrible accounts of black oppression never occurred to me, before listening…show more content… One of the many ideas presented in both the speech and book was. The idea that far too many African Americans are setup to fail right from the beginning of their lives. What Pitts and Baldwin mean by this is, that African Americans are put in areas with high amounts of crime, poor school districts and very few opportunities to succeed. Baldwin mentions similar disadvantages he faced growing up in his book. The kids at his school were drinking in the hallways and accepting that they could never make it out of the ghetto. Baldwin’s own parents constantly tried to convince him to quit school and go to work, because they too believed he would never be able to succeed. Baldwin also talks about how all of the disadvantages drove the kids in his area to the Avenue. The Avenue was where the pimps, whores and presumably drug dealers were. Thus, ensuring that once one the kids from Baldwin’s area ended up on the Avenue, they had no future after that. Additionally, Pitts stated that this very same issue is still relevant