What does Baldwin mean when he writes: "The details and symbols of your life have been deliberately constructed to make you believe what white people say about you."

not sure how to answer your question sorry

even though there may be variations in human emotions over time, the poem “ a contribution to statistics” by wislawa symborska suggests that the only unchangeable characteristic is mortality.

the author poses a distinction between the approximate and non-approximate numbers which correspond to our need for certainty in life and the difficulty of achieving it. our efforts to measure the exact often fail because the world is not always clearly structured .the poem seems to imply   that the only thing that is certain and has an exact number is death.  

the punctuation used in this line was exclamation points. exclamation points can show excitement, anxiousness, and etc.