"The American situation is very peculiar and it may be without precedent in the world. No curtain under heaven is heavier than that curtain of guilt and lies behind which white Americans hide" (James Baldwin, "White Man's Guilt") One of my earliest James Baldwin reading experiences was "Sonny's Blues," a short story that forms the centerpiece of Going to Meet … Continue reading James Baldwin – Going to Meet the Man and Some Mid-60’s Essays →

The words of "My Dungeon Shook" ring in my ears almost every single day.  Somehow the centerpiece of that ringing is a simple imperative sentence about 3/4 of the way through the final, two-page paragraph: You, don't be afraid. That paragraph, itself, lays out almost every needed inch of the conceptual and emotional terrain needed to make … Continue reading James Baldwin – The Fire Next Time →

Another Country is James Baldwin's third novel, and is is quite a bit longer than Baldwin's first two, maybe even longer than both of them combined.  It's interesting to me that it basically covers a lot of the same ground that his essays of the time do, but does so in the language of fiction.  The reason that's interesting … Continue reading James Baldwin – Another Country →

The greatest takeaway for me from Nobody Knows Your Name is "Fifth Avanue, Uptown: A Letter from Harlem."  In this essay Baldwin explores the phenomenology of police violence - again, if you don't care what I have to say, at least read these words of Baldwin's for yourself [next I'll be reading Another Country, Baldwin's 1962 … Continue reading James Baldwin – Nobody Knows My Name (and some other essays from the early 60’s) →

I was really surprised when I figured out that David, the protagonist of Baldwin's second novel, Giovanni's Room, was white.  The novel never says so directly, but he is described a handful of times as "blonde."  In fact, as far as I could tell, all of the principal characters are white, with the possible exception of … Continue reading James Baldwin – Giovanni’s Room →

The last part of Notes of a Native Son is made up of several travel essays Baldwin wrote in Europe - "Encounter on the Seine: Black Meets Brown," an essay about how African Americans see Africans (and vice-versa) in Paris; "A Question of Identity," mostly about white Americans coming to understand themselves while they're in Paris; … Continue reading Notes of a Native Son – Part 3 (of 3) →

...it goes without saying that injustice is a commonplace. But this did not mean that one could be complacent, for the second idea was of equal power: that one must never, in one’s own life, accept these injustices as commonplace but must fight them with all one’s strength. This fight begins, however, in the heart... Part … Continue reading Notes of a Native Son – Part 2 →

Notes of a Native Son (1955) collects some previously published essays and includes some originally penned for the collection.  I have read the eponymous essay ("Notes of a Native Son") with my classes for the last several years, and it's always a powerful reading experience.  It's Baldwin at his most directly autobiographical - it's in … Continue reading Notes of a Native Son – Part 1 →

Go Tell It on the Mountain is easy to underestimate, especially if you place it into the too-easy critical category of "semiautobiographical first novel."  The first time I read it, a few years ago, I made just that mistake.  I spent the whole time tracking the "John" character for what it might tell me about James … Continue reading James Baldwin – Go Tell It on the Mountain →