In Baldwin's essay, he tells of his experience – during 1955 – of visiting a European village that was not generally known. Specifically, he talks about the racism he experiences during his time in the village. Baldwin tells of the racial slurs the boys shouted at him when he went out into the street and how the villagers touched him and were "amazed that the color didn't rub off" (120). However, Baldwin also expresses the wonder of these villagers, saying, "...there was the charm of genuine wonder and certainly there was no element of intentional rudeness, there was still no suggestion that I was human : I was simply a living wonder" (121 ). At the beginning of his essay, Baldwin notes that, before him, the villagers had never seen a black person. It is for this reason that the villagers behave the way they do. They still have to have a meeting to get to know him better, so to speak. In any case, this interaction with the villagers led Baldwin to think about the difference between white and black culture. Baldwin concludes that it was because of active involvement in the lives of whites and blacks that separated America from Europe. So, it's the separation of cultures that creates this wall that allows a group of people to do this