I Am Not Your Negro: The Haunting of America’s Past

by Ava Tompkins

James Baldwin essentially confronts Americans with their history in I Am Not Your Negro by giving a clear view of the racial problem between white and black people. I think this film is so important because it portrays Baldwin’s work in a visual and audible way so that Americans can more easily grasp the facts that need to be faced in order for the racial problem to change. The quote from Baldwin most striking to me is “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” Facing the demons that still haunt this nation is what will ignite the necessary flame of change.

I believe that the work of Baldwin strongly resonates with the state of the world today, in 2020, with the Black Lives Matter movement and political divide. Implicit racism has always existed in America from its roots of slavery, but it became extremely amplified in 2020 after George Floyd was murdered by a white police officer. The Black Lives Matter movement emerged from the buildup of injustice, racism, and rage that America has taught black people to silence and suppress inside of them; this relates to the time of Baldwin’s life in the 1950’s and 1960’s, during the Civil Rights Movement. Baldwin’s incorporation of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Medgar Evans provides Americans with strong models of how change can be enforced. With their leadership and dedication during protests and rallies, they sparked the nation with passion that will forever be remembered as it demanded equality for all and acknowledgement of racism. Because all three of them were murdered, I believe that Baldwin wanted to convey how the racism in America overpowered their efforts— the very thing they were fighting for fought back harder—, further identifying how great of a change needs to be made to solve this problem: “I still believe that we can do with this country something that has not been done before…You need passion. And this is proven by the history of the world.” I think that if Baldwin was alive today, he would argue that America is taking a step in the right direction with the Black Lives Matter movement; it sheds light on the issues that have been ignored and suppressed for hundreds of years, but work still needs to be done until every white, American citizen can realize their privileges and prejudices that stem from their past. 

I think that if Baldwin was alive today, he would argue that America is taking a step in the right direction with the Black Lives Matter movement; it sheds light on the issues that have been ignored and suppressed for hundreds of years, but work still needs to be done until every white, American citizen can realize their privileges and prejudices that stem from the past.

Something significant I learned from Baldwin while watching the film was how white people invented the “negro” because they needed them (for the slave labor that built America) and now white people want to neglect them and deny their rights as a human (with segregation and inequality). Baldwin poses this to conclude how change will not occur until racist Americans question themselves why the “negro” was invented in the first place. The title I Am Not Your Negro aligns with Baldwin’s argument that he is denied his identity as a human man when called a “negro,” implying that he has not only faced and but also rejected this invention that the white man coined solely to divide. In a hopeful light, he suggests that America must form a new identity of needing each other; denying anyone participation in this new identity will cease the progression of equality. I think that when white people can stop placing distinctions upon black people, internally denying them their right to be human just the same as them, is how the change can occur that James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Medgar Evans, and countless other Americans fought for. The fight will continue on in the future as the younger generation is being exposed to and joining the Black Lives Matter movement; the demons are finally being faced and Baldwin’s message is rightfully being spread.

Essay written for LANG120 (Barya)