Affliction Of Morality In James Baldwin'sThe Fire Next Time?

This is a very important part of the book because it shows the reader that the

James Baldwin argues that “such Frustrations, so long endured, is driving many strong, admirable men and women whose only crime is color

The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Dubois is a influential work in African American literature and is an American classic. In this book Dubois proposes that "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." His concepts of life behind the veil of race and the resulting "double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others," have become touchstones for thinking about race in America. In addition to these lasting concepts, Souls offers an evaluation of the progress of the races and the possibilities for future progress as the nation entered the twentieth century.

Baldwin describes the whites as believing the blacks are inferior to them and that the white presumptions of black people have defined the place of blacks in society for many years. He states that “[his nephew was] born into a

Baldwin, however, describes his father as being a very black-like “African tribal chieftain” (64) who was proud of his heritage despite the chains it locked upon him. He is shown to be one with good intentions, but one who never achieved the positive outcome intended. His ultimate downfall was his paranoia such that “the disease of his mind allowed the disease of his body to destroy him” (66). Baldwin relates the story of a white teacher with good intentions and his father’s objection to her involvement in their lives because of his lack of trust for any white woman. His father’s paranoia even extended to Baldwin’s white high school friends. These friends, although they could be kind, “would do anything to keep a Negro down” (68), and they believed that the “best thing to do was to have as little to do with them as possible” (68). Thus, Baldwin leaves the reader with the image of his father as an unreasonable man who struggled to blockade white America from his life and the lives of his children to the greatest extent of his power. Baldwin then turns his story to focus on his own experience in the world his father loathed and on his realization that he was very much like his father.

The first essay is about James Baldwin's personal perspective of being black in racist America. The second essay goes on to how religion and Christianity allowed the segregation and oppression of blacks to grow between both whites and blacks of the United States (Baldwin, 1963). Christianity in the United States can be easily be compared to the opiate of the masses. Religion controlled the lives of the whites and forced the blacks to live under the oppressive rule of the whites.

In paragraphs 7 and 8, Baldwin alludes to his hostility towards white people. Baldwin supposes that there is an immense distinction between being the first white person to be seen by black people and to be the first black person to be seen by white people. Baldwin asserts that it is not fair that a white man can come to a new

There have been many cases of social injustice on a number of occasions in the expansive history of the United States. The oppressions of the early movements for women’s suffrage and the relocation and encampment of Native Americans are two of many occurrences. Around the middle of the 20th century, a movement for equality and civil liberties for African Americans among citizens began. In this essay, Notes of a Native son James Baldwin, a black man living in this time, recalls experiences from within the heart of said movement. Baldwin conveys a sense of immediacy throughout his passage by making his writing approachable and estimating an enormous amount of ethos.

In the secular black Jeremiads, there is a hopeful tone that America will be the nation that it is destined to be. Baldwin focuses on three key aspects of the traditional black Jeremiad, hopefulness and persuasion of decline. Baldwin initates the Jeremiad with reflection on what this christian nation is and if we do not “all of us will abruptly stop living” (PG). He mourns the state of the nation whose obsessed with the “negro problem” (Baldwin, PG). Baldwin’s hopeful tone emerges as

Baldwin gives the impression that no white man has ever had to walk a mile in a black man?s shoes. While the Negro was getting shipped to America without a pot to piss in, the white man remained hiding behind beliefs in ?white supremacy? (Baldwin 133). The concept of white supremacy has separated two different races for years. For Americans, whose heritage came from Europe, acceptance of the Negro was not considered due to the ?jeopardy? it could cause among their status as men (Baldwin 133). Baldwin knows his rage must have limitations so he begins to question how this type of ignorance could have evolved. Baldwin tries to associate this stupid form of hate with the Swiss village but cannot because he feels that the villagers remain innocent by their ignorance to anything that does not affect them, in their village, directly.

To many African Americans of the time, whites seemed like a force of nature, something inevitable that had complete control over what happened to them. There is a moment before Mann is sentenced to death where he could have spoken his side of the story and he does not: “‘Nigger, do you know the meaning of this?’ Mann opened his mouth, but no words came ‘Do you know this means your life’” (Wright 161). In this moment Mann knows that nothing he can say will change his fate, instead he silently accepts that. Like the currents in the rushing water nothing can change them. In fact, “racism is as powerful and unpredictable–and as much to be feared–as the violence of nature itself, and the authors’ juxtaposing of the two forces is a means of illustrating social evil by measuring it against the more familiar concept of natural danger” (Howard 47). The violence of nature is a force that cannot be changed, weather will occur not matter how much society would rather it not. Racism on the other hand is something that people can control, the idea that it had just as large of an effect on the blacks displaced by the great flood as the flood itself; speaks volumes of the amount of racism that occurred in the 1920s. It is understandable that many blacks would feel like whites were a force that could be controlled as well as

was a very real aspect of slavery. Baldwin pushes aside this book, calling it “self-righteous” and

In this passage, he displays that black parents must consider the factors into which they are bringing children and must overcome this fear. This concept also features in “Notes of a Native Son” where Baldwin writes of the difficulty of preparing a “child for the day when the child would be despised” and the battle on how to protect children against a hateful world: “how to create in the child...a stronger antidote to this poison than one had found for oneself…” (106). In this way, Baldwin shows that it is a privilege to be calm about the reproducing.

The notion of racism is often misconstrued as prejudice, however, while a person can be prejudice, racism is a notion that is systematic, therefore impacted people without the reason for the individual to assert their opinions. James Baldwin explains this by beginning his essay through claiming that the term “white community” is invalid because it is not connected to identity, but as an impulse to enforce, or a reason to dominate. He continues by explaining that the idea of being “white” is invalid to the fact that when settlers came to America, they identified as their nationalities. However, this identity was defined when a gruesome process of coercion, disenfranchisement and violence became a common practice. As specified by Baldwin: “White men—from Norway, for example, where they were Norwegians—became white: by slaughtering the cattle, poisoning the wells, torching the houses, massacring Native Americans, raping Black women.” . Nonetheless, the ability to identify as “white” does not solely derive from a sense of security or stability, but to dispense insecurity towards other groups in order to assert superiority and a hegemonic system. This is done through the comparison of black child’s life vs. a white child’s life. As police brutality and carding runs rampant, geographical factors also are in consideration due to the fact that it is more likely

James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time addresses society’s long-term oppression of Black people and racial tension in America. His words wish to inform his nephew on how to live in a world where we as a people are shown little sympathy and compassion for seeking equality after so many years of inequality. Since the days of slavery, whiteness has been equated with superiority and power. White supremacy has created a platform for white people, especially those with wealth and in positions of power, to remain in power while exploiting and discarding the lives of Black people for centuries. Slavery capitalized off of and destroyed the lives of millions of African Americans and continues to negatively affect us to this day.