The Fire Next Time

James Baldwin's words, not the least bit diminished after 55 years, cut the American dream — which is by necessity and consequence of history the White American Dream — down to the bone. He was a man who could easily be seen as bitter and merciless but was in fact simply and courageously after the truth.

Baldwin's letter to his nephew serves as an emotional and gripping preface for the book. The letter of warning and advice one can only assume served as inspiration for Ta-Nehisi Coates' nearly as powerful “Between the World and Me.”

In the book's main essay, through personal reminiscences, historical examples and analysis of current events (the book was published in 1962), Baldwin dispels the illusion that African Americans can expect to be afforded equal rights and exposes the reality — that laws, amendments and court rulings made for political expediency are powerless to institute change as long as we hold on to our false perceptions — and by we, I mean liberals and conservatives alike.

Baldwin was acquainted with virtually every major civil rights figure of the time, including Malcom X, Martin Luther King and Elijah Muhammed, the founder of the Nation of Islam. (Seek out the Oscar-nominated documentary, “I Am Not Your Negro” as a terrific introduction to Baldwin.) He describes in fascinating detail a meeting he had with the controversial religious leader. The author excoriates Black people in America who see their African and Islamic heritage as the foundation for a better future. He sees only false hope in that school of thought. In explanation, he says Black Americans are unique, having been torn from their history in Africa, enslaved and branded as less than fully human in this country, a state that continued to his day and we can easily argue continues on.

Further, he accuses the Nation of Islam and other well meaning movements designed to instill Black pride of inventing false histories. “In order to change a situation one has first to see it for what it is. ... An invented past can never be used; it cracks and crumbles under the pressures of life like clay in a season of drought.”

Baldwin's plea is to study history and understand where the truth and falsehoods lie. The reality, is hard for us to take — impossible for most:

“The American Negro is a unique creation; he has no counterpart anywhere, and no predecessors. ... It is a fact that every American Negro bears a name that originally belonged to the white man whose chattel he was. I am called Baldwin because I was either sold by my African tribe or kidnapped out of it into the hands of a white Christian named Baldwin, who forced me to kneel at the foot of the cross. I am, then, both visibly and legally the descendant of slaves in a white, Protestant country, and this is what it means to be an American Negro, this is who he is — kidnapped, pagan, who was sold like an animal and treated like one, who was once defined by the American Constitution as ‘three-fifths' of a man, and who, according to the Dred Scott decision had no rights that a white man was bound to respect.”

At the same time, he warns Black people against causing suffering in ways that they themselves have suffered. “Whoever debases others is debasing himself,” he writes.

Baldwin's answer is to face reality. The institutionalized crime against Black people is not just a civil rights issue; it's a fault line in the foundation of our society that will ultimately pull us all down if not addressed. If we all accept the truth and face these tragic injustices, at least we might have a start. When we all accept the truth, at least we all stand on common ground.