In this post: A great, primary literary source on being Black in America. And unfortunately, not much has changed. Read this before Between the World and Me!
Category: Black in America
Happy Black History Month!
Ramiah Recommended?
Yes.
First, this book is iconic. Of the many "Black History Books" / "Books by Black Authors" book lists I have poured over during the creation of my own, The Fire Next Time was always recommended. Always.
Second, I should have read this book before Between the World and Me.
In The Fire Next Time, Baldwin writes a letter to his nephew in the first part and cathartically examines the state of Black Americans in the second.
This book was published in 1963. Other than the use of Negro to describe Black people, I could have easily been fooled into thinking it was written in the last decade or two.
The world has scarcely changed.
Bringing in the vocabulary I gained from Stamped From the Beginning: A Remix and How To Be An Antiracist (post coming soon!), The Fire Next Time is an ode to antiracism (in the context of Black people being treated equally to White people), yet also a guide on how to thrive -- or survive, rather -- in a Black body in a racist world.
Please try to remember that what they believe, as well as what they do and cause you to endure, does not testify to your inferiority but to their inhumanity and fear (pg 17).
Baldwin's message to his nephew made me think of Ta-Nehesi Coates'...entire book, really... dedicated to his son, in which he also provides guidance on how to navigate America with Blackness. In that way, I felt that I had read much of the message of The Fire Next Time before*.
Very irrational of me. I know!
There is no authoritative opinion on how to father Black sons. It is not an exhaustive topic, and no perspective (be it Baldwin, Coates, or a favorite speaker of mine, Clint Smith) will drone out the other. For whatever reason, however, I still experienced a diluted epiphany or reckoning as a reader (which is how I easily know when a book is BEYOND GOOD) when reading The Fire Next Time.
I'm gonna go hide under a rock now and force myself to re-read this book to prove myself wrong.
But in all seriousness, this book is very, very profound.
One thought-provoking theme in this book is the commentary on religion. Baldwin posits that God must be White because He has allowed such atrocities to happen against Black people. In example:
God - and I felt this even then, so long ago on that tremendous floor, unwillingly - is white. And if His love was so great, and if He loved all His Children, why were we, the blacks, cast down so far? Why?" (pg 30).
I immediately draw parallels to the "Why do bad things happen to good people?" existential question. What or who is to blame for extreme injustices against humanity? Baldwin's loss of faith in an attempt to answer this existential question is understandable.
Black is beautiful and worthy. The society and systems we hold dear (America, the American Dream, religion, etc.) are flawed. Black people must love ourselves to love our country and our countrymen.
It probably occurred to me around this time that the vision people hold of the world to come is but a reflection, with predictable wishful distortions, of the world in which they live (pg 36)
When I first read this, I had to reread it several times to truly absorb its meaning: the future is a distorted present. The was incredibly grim when I first read it, but based on information in the rest of Part Two, I'd add "the future is a distorted present without change."
If people in power now are the sole people in power years from now, how is that future going to present a different reality? In the context of The Fire Next Time, if Black people continued to be oppressed in America, how could the Black experience improve overall? It couldn't.
Let's make the change.
*The title "Between the World and Me" is taken from a quote in Part Twoo of The Fire Next Time, titled "Down at the Cross." In the essay, Baldwin describes the feeling of a wall existing between himself and the white world surrounding him. So maybe picking up on that connection wasn't very irrational, after all!Ramiah Reflects
My New Favorite Life Quotes:
"If you know whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go." - James Baldwin
Questions to Ask Yourself (and answer!):
On page 39, Baldwin writes: "If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him." Do you agree?
On page 38, Baldwin reflects: "He reacts to the fear in his parents' voices because his parents hold up the world for him and he has no protection without them. I defended myself, as I imagined, against the fear my father made me feel by remembering that he was very old-fashioned…. That summer, in any case, all the fears with which I had grown up, and which were now a part of me and controlled my vision of the world, rose up like a wall between the world and me, and drove me into the church." What did you learn to fear from your parents, or society at large?
Do you agree with the author's opinion on the purpose of God? "If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him" (page 39).
Food for Thought:
What does hypocrisy look like in different institutions? Balwin expresses the following about his involvement in the church: "I knew where the money for 'the Lord's work' went… I had no respect for the people with whom I worked… I also knew that if I continued I would soon have no respect for myself" (pg 35).
What does Black racism look like elsewhere, and how has American Black racism impacted other countries? This question is inspired by this quote on page 27: "Negroes in this country - and Negroes do not, strictly or legally speaking, exist in any other - are taught really to despise themselves from the moment their eyes open on the world."
Baldwin shares that he pitied his oppressors in the following sentence: "Now I pitied them, pitied them in order not to despise them. And this is not the happiest way to feel toward one's countrymen" (page 35). What urged that pity - the preservation of his sanity or his survival?
Ramiah's Re-read When
Re-read when:
You want to connect how the past dictates today
When you want to contemplate answers to existential questions
You want to reflect on the world Black children are raised in
You want to consider how to communicate oppression to a child
See below for my book notes:
Check out my other posts and book notes here.
Until next time!
Montana Houston
