“A Talk to Teachers” opens with a conversational tone. Baldwin writes, “Let’s begin by saying that we are living through a very dangerous time” (Paragraph 1). This second-person plural opening is congenial, elevating Baldwin’s audience from passive reader to active participant in his argumentation, perhaps hoping to spur them to action. Reflecting the severity of the topic at hand, Baldwin’s tone turns serious as facts are presented and conclusions are drawn in support of the argument laid out in the essay’s beginning: Racism does far more than cause minor disputes; its consequences are deadly, and the classroom is the best place to candidly discuss and dissect racism and its roots in America’s foundations. Consequently, educators fill a crucial role in the effort to eradicate racism and dismantle the social structures that support and sustain it.

Baldwin practices what he preaches by centering his argument in history, tracing the evolution of racism from the Reconstruction era after the Civil War to World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War and the contemporaneous civil rights movement of the 1960s. Tracing this chronology of racism across eras emphasizes how racism has not disappeared or lessened over time, only evolved and taken new forms.