“A Hideously Difficult Task”: An Exploration of American Racial Identity through the Works of James Baldwin
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published 20/06/2008
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Summary
In a style similar to other minority works of literature, James Baldwin’s writing encompasses the recurring theme of identity—what it means and from where it originates. This theme stems from incomplete identity of the black American community. Baldwin’s writings try to explain the difficulties that this group of people has faced with a past that was essentially created by whites and reinforced by stereotypes that must be overcome in spite of racial oppression. Although Baldwin saw himself simply as an American, to the white world he was a black man and a homosexual, therefore, not truly American. Baldwin unwillingly took up the role as a spokesperson for blacks. His job was to show white America that the “Black Problem” was an American problem because blacks were not the ones who originated the racial problems in the United States. Blacks had been on the North American continent along with whites for over three hundred years by the time the Civil Rights Movement began, but were not given the same rights and were hardly even considered to belong to the mainstream American society. The identity of American blacks was created in America and is apart of the collective history of white and black Americans. Through his writing, Baldwin tries to express to the white population that this history and this identity cannot be disregarded. It must be legitimately recognized before any progress can be made.
Table of Contents
- 'Stranger in the Village' and The Fire Next Time were written almost ten years apart.
- One of the many problems that blacks face in America is the impossibility for them to identify with any group other than themselves.
- Baldwin was the literary and intellectual voice of the Civil Rights Movement.
- The identity of black Americans is found not just in the history of slavery, but also in Christianity and the influence of black churches.
- Elijah Muhammad has been able to do what welfare workers, committees, resolutions, reports, housing projects and playgrounds have failed to do
- In Europe, Baldwin knew that he would not face the same overt racism that he had endured in the United States.
- The story about the 'buying' of the African natives also draws a parallel to civil rights leaders identifying with the end of colonialism in Africa
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