I Am Not Your Negro
Raoul Peck's documentary, I Am Not Your Negro, illuminates the history of the black experience in America as seen through the eyes of the author James Baldwin. Drawing off Baldwin's work Remember This House, the documentary explores the connections between the way things were during his time and the way things are in American society today. Prevalent themes in the film include the contrasts and similarities of civil rights activists Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Medgar Evers, the power words can have, racial representation in the media, and the reality that social justice still remains to be seen in our country and around the world.
I find it interesting that Baldwin saw his role, not as an activist as they had all been, he was not a member of the Black Panther's, a Christian Congregation, or the NAACP, but instead saw himself as a witness and actor who walked a thin line in order to write stories and get them out.
Baldwin was a man who wrote and spoke eloquently, thoughtfully, and passionately on the subject of race in America. He realized that a contributor to racial tension stemmed from language ubiquitously spread throughout society. For this reason, he was intentional in his own language. Through the documentary, we learn that he did not want to perpetuate speaking ill of whites, because he did not want to portray whites as evil. He did not want blacks to think that way. He knew the language used to speak of blacks only fueled anger and rage for blacks. Instead of instigating this further, he sought alternative measures.
To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time. So that the first problem is how to control that rage so that it won’t destroy you.
In a contrasting connection, Bettina Love discusses White Rage in her book We Want To Do More Than Survive. She postulates that the trigger for white rage is not the treatment whites receive from blacks, but the ambition, drive, purpose, and aspirations of blacks who demand equality.
In addition to the role language played in racism, Baldwin was painfully aware of the influence of racial representation in movies and the media. His position was that racial inequality was subtly ingrained in movies from the birth of cinematic films and onward. He was also aware that these films were perceived differently by black and white audiences. He saw movies a reflection of the land in which he lived, and they told him that his countrymen were his enemy. He noticed that through movies, a miracle could be made out of a massacre. Similarly, these representations and ideals about blacks are one of the focuses of the documentary 13th. The film elucidates that media representation of blacks often propagates controversial and misconstrued images of blacks in order to fit an oppressive agenda.
People cling to their hates so stubbornly because they sense once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.
Baldwin knew that even after the civil rights movement, America had failed to rectify its history of racial inequality. His words throughout the film and the images and video clips selected by Peck are a painful reminder that America is still far from achieving equality. Long after the murders of Malcolm, Martin, and Medgar our country repeats the pattern of violence and oppression. Peck evidences this in the film with footage of the riots in Furgerson, Missouri, police brutality, and images of Trevon Martin, Tamir Rice, and Amir Brooks. Dr. Tricia Rose would attribute these atrocities to structural racism which normalizes and legitimizes a variety of policies, practices, and attitudes which perpetuate chronic adverse outcomes for blacks and people of color.
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Hi Kerren, I enjoyed reading your blog as you touched on many of the key ideas from the documentary that I also found to be true. I totally agree that Baldwin showed how racial inequality started way back when with the creation of films like "A Birth of a Nation" and many others in which the heroes were actors like Charleston Heston and John Wayne whose films only dehumanized people of color: shooting Natives and raping their woman and killing or beating African Americans. Then there were the commercials that portrayed African Americans as Sambos or Aunt Jemimas or maids just like the caricature above in your photo. As Baldwin stated, " To watch a TV screen is to learn some reality, frightening things about American sense of reality." These negative images of blacks in the past just validates what we already know: this country never had a place for Black and Brown people. So, how can a black child ever understand their role is in this country or better yet what their future will be?
ReplyDeleteHello. I too wonder how a black child can ever understand their role and what their future will be. I found the following Baldwin quote to be very profound and it made me wonder how it must feel when a child makes such a realization as there is not a place for them in society . “Leaving aside the bloody catalog of oppression, what this does to [the American Negro] is it destroys his sense of reality. It comes as a great shock around the age of 6-7 that when Gary Cooper killing off the American Indians, when you were rooting for Gary Cooper, the Indians are you. It comes as a great shock to discover that the country, which is your birth place, and to which you owe your life and your identity has not in it’s whole system of reality involved any place for you.” Not only did movies like this legitimize barbarity, but win the opinions of the viewer to feel the same way about a particular race. I cant imagine the shock when the viewer realizes that they and the object of barbarity are one in the same.
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ReplyDeleteGreat blog post! It is a very in depth look at the documentary and I agree with a lot of your reflections. I was so interested in how he compared these Black leaders to each other in ways that I never knew or thought about. For example, when he talks about Malcolm X and MLK being opposites and publicly disagreeing with each other, I was surprised. Even though I knew the two did not agree on how to seek racial justice, I still thought they worked together at some points. I think Baldwin's mention of media was, also, very important. These are issues that we are still seeing today and just starting to make media more inclusive. He was bringing this up decades ago. Very eye opening!
Hi, Carly! I was also surprised in learning that Malcom X and MLK had publicly disagreed on the way to approach the civil rights movement Then again, if I am honest, I never really knew that much about Malcom X. I was just out of high school when the Spike Lee movie starring Denzel Washington as Malcolm was released, and I remember seeing advertisements for the movie. That is all I knew about him, that Spike Lee had made a movie about him, that I never did see. I wonder what that says about the education I received that had completely omitted his existence and the plight of civil rights activists. I had been taught about MLK and his "I Have a Dream" speech, but examinations of the civil rights movement in my education ended with cursory studies of him, Rosa Parks, and desegregation. This has also made me consider how my white privilege prevented me from learning more about the movement and those involved on my own as an adult. I have truly learned a great deal through this class and this film.
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