2026 Reading Challenge
The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction, 1948-1985

Questions About The Price of the Ticket: Collected Nonfiction, 1948-1985

by James Baldwin

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Could anyone who has access to the book (I do not at present) clarify how the phrase "price of the ticket" is used in the book? What does it refer to? A ticket to where? Thanks so much!
Jessica He's referencing the (symbolic) ticket to America from where we originally came from: "....part of the price of the black ticket is involved--fatally-…moreHe's referencing the (symbolic) ticket to America from where we originally came from: "....part of the price of the black ticket is involved--fatally--with the dream of becoming white. This is not possible because white people are not white: part of the price of the white ticket is to delude themselves into believing that they are.... This incredibly limited not to say dimwitted ambition has choked many a human being to death here: and this, I contend, is because the white American has never accepted the real reasons for his journey." (less)
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