James Baldwin

In one of the last few editions of The Atlantic, I was introduced to the author and activist, James Baldwin. While I am sure that I had never read any of his books, not seen him on TV, I was aware of the titles of a few of his books.

After reading the article, which was a summary of a debate from 1965 about race relations between Baldwin and William F Buckley, I searched the Chester County Library system and found "The Fire Next Time", and then when returning that book, borrowed "Go Tell It On The Mountain", the first written in 1963, the 2nd in 1953.

First, I am a bit surprised that I was never asked to read one his books in high school or college, especially given that I attended high school from 1972 to 1976, a very volatile time in race relations in America. 

While Baldwin championed equal rights to blacks (the wording of the day), he did not embrace the philosophy of integration when that concept meant becoming white, as opposed to being treated equally. And he certainly did not advocate pretending that systemic racism, as well as slavery, had not done irreparable harm to the Black community. 

Nor did he easily forgive white people for actively or passively supporting the systems that treated people of color less equally, even as less than human.

A number of characters in his books expressed this most clearly, with little reluctance to emphasize the evil that had been done to Black men and women, and, even further, to consider white people, not only hypocrites for their alleged belief in those wonderful words "all men are created equal", but even evil. 

After reading both books in the last few weeks, I can easily imagine them being banned (as they are in a number of places) as he does not hide his contempt for white people, nor sugar coat the violence and cruelty that was the plight of those of his race, both on the plantations, and in the streets of the south.

While he doesn't describe the actual scene, a young Black woman is taken into the woods by a number of white men who violently take her virginity. She is forever changed, not just by the horrific act, but by how she is treated by her own community afterwards. The simple fact that her attackers are never prosecuted, not even indicted, is bad enough, but that her own people treat her as damaged goods adds insult to injury.  

I don't know if Baldwin mellowed in his opinions of race relations in America in his later years. I would like to think that he would have been extremely proud of America, and even white people, had he been alive when Obama was elected to be president, twice.

But perhaps it is best that he is not alive now, with the horrible backsliding that is occurring under the Trump Administration. I can imagine his outrage and anger at the president when he makes statements suggesting that slavery was not so bad, or that perhaps the Smithsonian should not be so harsh in its presentation of this topic. 

I would think that he may have thought that, despite the glaring statistics, still, concerning incarceration rates for young Black men who commit the same crimes as their white counterparts, but are jailed many times more, there had been progress since the days of the Tulsa Massacre, and the mean treatment of African American veterans who, after returning from war and conflict, were still treated with disdain and outright viciousness. 

Whether he would have been surprised at the popularity of Trump's open racism or vindicated that he was right all along, it is impossible to know.

Finally, I was struck by Baldwin's depiction of church, belief in Jesus, and the importance of prayer as depicted in many of his characters. On one hand, he also portrayed a sense of futility to pray for justice, and for eternal happiness with God. 

For instance, that same woman whom I described above represents total commitment to the belief in an afterlife with a merciful God, and the saving grace of Jesus, who suffered even worse tribulations during his life.  

So, while Baldwin conveyed a cynicism in longing for peace and tranquility and fair treatment in the next life, knowing that it would never happen in reality, he also described events and characters that seem able to survive earthly life only because they dream of that everlasting peace after their current life ends. 

I've posted a few times under the title Race Relations. In the following post, as Obama's 2nd term was ending, and the popularity of Trump was building, I was still hopeful that, the backlash that was infecting America after having elected our first African American president, would be temporary. And may even lead to another leap forward once it had passed. Sadly, we seem to have fallen even further behind, and, if there is a leap forward in our near future, I can't see it.

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2016/07/black-and-white.html

In this next short post, I discuss an edition of the National Geographic about race and ethnicity. In reading it again today, I enjoyed my comment that if we could only alter our perception of skin color to reflect the understanding that such a trait is in response to environmental influences, not as a reflection of some type of scarlet letter usage by the Creator to label some of us. That we are all black, just some a little lighter, or conversely, we are all white, just some a little darker. 

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2018/03/race-and-ethnicity.html

This next post was written a few weeks after the the murder of George Floyd inspired protests around the country. In that post, I included a link to, and the actual story called The Switch Back, which was my version of what would happen if a certain percentage of influential and powerful people on Earth woke up in a body which presented as a different gender and race, than what they had before.

And, after nine months in that scenario with all the changes that would begin to occur if suddenly the world was run by black women, what would happen when they were all switched back.  

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-ongoing-protests.html 

The last linked post is just about three years old, and is a reflection on the replacement theory rhetoric that was prevalent then. Sadly, very sadly, it appears that the current administration is implementing policies that seek to rectify the inevitable changes in demographics that are in process in America.

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2022/10/replacement-theory.html 

Finally, and only somewhat related, I encountered a post from 2017 when updating the font on recent posts "hit" by a reader.  It reminded me of the conversations I have been having about my current lack of  optimism and how that is common as people age, so it should not be a surprise that America itself is neck deep in nostalgia and the good old days. Hence, the popularity of make America great again.

The post describes the efforts to document opinions as to when times were better, generally always times when people were children. As if our parents, any parents, told their kids about their financial troubles, or exposed them to the sometimes cruelty of reality.

Which of course, provides an explanation for why so many children today suffer depression and anxiety, as that technological wonder called the cell phone provides information on a daily basis about the truly horrible things occurring in the world, from the slow starvation of the Palestinians to the daily bombings in Ukraine to the under the radar conflicts on the African continent that produces so much death and poverty. 

Where people of my age who grew up in the 60's and 70's, a time marked by much civil unrest, were insulated, for the most part from the brutality of what was happening, today's kids see it scrolling across their phones as it happens.

Not to mention, reading the works of James Baldwin, who detailed the horrors of the "good old days" but whose words did not penetrate the everyday white household, culminating in a swath of my contemporaries thinking those times were, not just the best days of their lives (which should be true when we are children), but the best days for America. 

And so we blithely accept prisons for people who have risked life and limb to come to America for opportunity and freedom, thinking that such cruelty will bring back those better days. 

No wonder Trump and his ilk want to remove all mention of the atrocities committed against indigenous people, minorities, women. By whitewashing history (strange, that word, whitewash), it makes it easier to commit those same atrocities again, just with different victims. 

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2017/05/nostalgia.html