Directions: View the documentary and read the two short stories (you will view the documentary in class). Next, compose a thoughtful blog post using evidence from all three works in an attempt to explore one of the complex issues Baldwin examined in his discussion of race in America. Be okay with feeling uncomfortable. Ask questions. Look for feedback. Also, practice kindness. We can discuss these matters with passion AND civility.
I Am Not Your Negro (2017)
We will begin viewing the documentary. In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing his next project, "Remember This House." The book was to be a revolutionary, personal account of the lives and assassinations of three of his close friends: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. At the time of Baldwin's death in 1987, he left behind only 30 completed pages of this manuscript. Filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished. How can Baldwin's ideas be used to inform us today? Can you cite instances in the documentary that opened your eyes, and show us how you see this drama playing out in 2018?
Here is a helpful study guide:
http://learn.kera.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/I-Am-Not-Your-Negro-DG-Film-Club.pdf
"Sonny's Blues" (1957) by James Baldwin
The first-person narrator of "Sonny's Blues" tells the story of his relationship with his younger brother, Sonny. The story begins with narrator, saddened by his brother's choices, reflecting back on their childhood, wondering what caused his brother to become an addict. How does Baldwin use jazz as a means of discussing the complex emotions of his characters? This is the most anthologized of Baldwin's stories. However, how would this story end up perpetuating "the danger of the single story?"
http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda/2B-HUM/Readings/Baldwin-Sonnys-Blues.pdf
For many individuals, the relationships that exist between family members are the strongest and most influential human connections that the person will ever experience within his or her lifetime. These bonds, formed in early psycho-social development, have the potential to permanently define how a person views his or her world. Through the eyes of Jesse, we see how racism is handed down from generation to generation in one of the most graphic scenes in the literary canon. Using moments from the story, where are you seeing similar instances in the world today?
Throughout the short stories and documentary, there is the evident theme of how racism affected America and the incidents that were involved throughout this time period. However, there is a strong focus on how our views on others affect the impression on the person who has an association to our view. For example, in the short story Sonny’s Blues, the narrator experiences a particularly difficult situation in which he is reunited with his brother, a recovering addict. In the past, Sonny, the narrator’s brother, told him that he had an interest in being a jazz pianist. The narrator quickly dismissed this until the conclusion of the story in which the narrator witnessed his brother, Sonny, perform. As Sonny was playing, “there was no battle in his face now. [He] heard what he had gone through. And would continue to go through until he came to rest in the earth” (47). As his brother poured his heart and soul into his music, the narrator was finally able to understand the true struggles that he endured and got to know him on a more personal level. In the short story Going to meet the Man, there was a similar, yet subtle, occurrence. Jesse, the main character had a young, black friend named Otis as a boy. Growing up with the prevalent inequality issues and a racist father, the “thought of Otis made him sick. [Jesse] began to shiver” (1756). Jesse’s perception of Otis grew more deformed as he continued to age due to the racist nature of his father’s thoughts and actions. Similar to the narrator in Sonny’s Blues, he would have never understood Sonny as a person without hearing his full story. Jesse was never able to understand Otis’s complete story as his opinion was swayed by his father. Looking at the documentary, we also see the similar theme involving the racial representation in the media. Without the wrongful portrayal of black people on the media, many generations would most likely have a different reaction when experiencing racial issues. Through these examples, it is crucial to acknowledge how influential someone else's opinion can be. If Jesse’s father taught him to treat everyone as an equal, would he have beat up those men? Would Sonny and the narrator grown closer sooner if only the narrator had taken the chance to listen to his music earlier?
ReplyDeleteWhile, I believe, we like to hope that the best would come out of one person's improved, respectful, and accepting morals, I feel that there are many more factors that influence our perception of other besides that one close relative. I dont deny the power and importance in these relationships, it doesn't change that white America had a terrifyingly influential grip on society that thrived on hatred towards African Americans. If it wasn't Jesse's father, it can be Jesse's friends, teachers, or neighbors.
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DeleteI agree Anna that there are many more factors that influence our perception of others besides a close relative. However, when you are an innocent child, you see your parents as morally righteous and blindly follow along. So, although I agree that others can influence you, a parent or sibling will have the largest impact on the child's outcome. Therefore, I believe that Jesse would not have likely beat up those men if he was not exposed to such racism as a child. He would have possibly been seen as an outlier among many racist white people during his time, but he would have had a better defined set of moral values— of right and wrong.
DeleteOne of the most striking elements of ‘I Am Not Your Negro,” is its ability to reflect and inform us of the racism still present in the world around us today. Throughout the film, there’s scenes from the past where harsh brutality by police and the community is enacted against Black people, and then it suddenly cuts to pieces of similar instances today. No matter how far we've progressed as a nation, this documentary reminds us that we still have work to do; the fight against racism is far from over. Baldwin states, “the truth is that this country does not know what to do with it's Black population," and to some extent, we see this prevail in our society even today. This line revealed to me the extent of the issue at hand. Racism has been rooted in our country and to completely eliminate past prejudices and oppression is just not feasible. Instead of trying to pretend as if racism is just a thing of the past, we must acknowledge the suffering that occurred, honor those who fought for equality, and teach the next generation to learn from our country’s past mistakes. This film speaks to that idea, as it not only honors three prominent figures, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr, but it educates us and calls for us to keep fighting against racism.
ReplyDeleteA big reason why racism continues to remain in society is because of its ability to be passed down from generation to generation. As seen in “Going to Meet the Man,” Jesse was taught racism at a young age. At that age, your parents are one of the most influential people in your life. After Jesse had witnessed the torture to the Black man, he felt as though his father “had revealed to him a great secret which would be the key to his life forever.” This foreshadows the idea that what your parents teach or expose you to, does in fact impact who you will become as you grow older. People are not born racist; they are taught to be racist. This same idea is still evident in the world today, and even though we have progressed a long way from the past, it is clear that racism has never truly disappeared from our society.
In Sonny’s Blues, Baldwin uses Jazz as a way to connect and understand the characters. The narrator categorizes Jazz in with people who hang around nightclubs and believes this lifestyle is “beneath” Sonny. It is clear that he believes this type of scene and music sparked Sonny’s addiction. On the other hand, Sonny views Jazz as a way to escape the world around him. In the end, Jazz is the thing that brings the brothers together again. As he watches Sonny play, there's a moment where he thinks, “now theses are Sonny’s blues.” This is where he began to truly understand his brother, and furthermore himself, as he reflects back on his parents death and the loss of his daughter. The danger of a single story can be cautioned here, as we are being told this whole story from the point of view of the brother. We do not know Sonny’s life experiences and how he truly got to be where he ended up. We are only told one side of the story, told by the brother. Without knowing the other side, told by Sonny, we risk making false assumptions or judgments of Sonny when we don't know the full story, told from both point of views.
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ReplyDelete“Racism is as American as cherry pie.” Although, we have progressed since times of slavery and Jim Crow laws, the innate, subconscious racism that persists in many Americans still influence how they treat minorities.
ReplyDeleteAs illustrated in the documentary, there was public outrage when African Americans were being integrated into white schools. Civil rights leaders urged politicians to publicly support their movement, but many refused. I was shocked to hear that President Kennedy, who I always admired, did not want to walk the African American students into school. I was also taken back when the class was reminded that many of the people we saw in the documentary holding racist posters are still alive.
While the documentary effectively shows the progression of the civil rights movement, Baldwin’s fictional story of “Going to Meet the Man” highlights the generational passing down of racism. As a religious man, the town sheriff often questions “what had the good Lord Almighty have in mind when he made the niggers?” (1750). He feels his job is to protect “white people from the niggers and the niggers from themselves” and that “it wasn’t his fault if the niggers had taken it into their heads to fight against God and go against the rules of the Bible…!” (1753). Racism, as Mr. Pellerin reminds us, is not in the Bible. This racism that is within the sheriff can be traced back to his childhood, when his parents brought him to see a lynching. While the man “wanted death to come quickly, they wanted to make death wait” (1760). The fact that the murdering of a man was such a family spectacle is very disturbing. I believe that Baldwin is effective in illustrating why racism persists in a contemporary society. Although such violence is not as prevalent today, acts of racism witnessed by innocent children harms our future.
In “Sonny’s Blues,” the difficulties faced by African Americans is vividly described through the story of Sonny, who was arrested for dealing heroin but then finds interest in jazz music. Sonny’s brother, a teacher, describes that his students only really knew “two darknesses, the darkness of their lives...and the darkness of the movies, which had blinded them to that other darkness, and in which they now, vindictively, dreamed at once more together than they were at any other time, and more alone” (18). As Baldwin describes, racism still affects the morale and opportunities of African Americans in this country. Children are born innocent, but “when light fills the room, the child is filled with darkness” (27). This is extremely relevant to our society today. Since actions as extreme as lynchings are not prevalent, often the effects of racism can be felt by the lack of opportunities and discrimination African Americans face.
As Baldwin eloquently states, “it is entirely up to the American people whether or not they’re going to face and deal with and erase this stranger.” As we witness and live the current Black Lives Matter movement, it is our responsibility to denounce racist acts and eradicate racist thoughts to the best of our ability. All three works by Baldwin illustrate this theme of social responsibility. It is hard to control what other people are thinking, but what can we do to stop such racism? We must start with ourselves.
I agree with you it is important to note that Americans today are not as detached from the racist past as we often feel. The number of years in the past since slavery was common, or just since the civil rights movement, is a shockingly low number. Many Americans today push these issues aside as "old history" when really, this is just a few generations we are talking about. This is our immediate history and as you say, we have the social responsibility to cope with this.
DeleteI like how you highlighted that, as Americans, we label racism, slavery, and the civil rights movement as old history. I believe that we do this in an effort to forget and to say that we are better now. However, the truth is that we are better, but we still have a long way to go in reaching true equality. As we discussed in class, people in Germany tend to have a different approach in addressing their past, the Holocaust. While we label racism as history, Germany has a focus on restitution. Racism is a complicated issue to solve. It is hard to change the initial thoughts of people, but we should at least try.
DeleteHearing that phrase, "racism is as American as cherry pie," it's always so shocking, but also so unphasing to hear. In Going to Meet the Man, we see a graphic lynching where a man is torn apart and burned alive. Somehow, though, the people treat it as a picnic, a social event, in which the murder of a black man is simply the entertainment for their Sunday brunch. We go through our lives every day seeing racism, but it's so built in and fundamental to our world that it doesn't even bother us. Sure, we'll say it's wrong and say it should change, but yet we stand by and even participate in casual racism everyday.
DeleteAt the end of it, the issue is not the religion, but people who use the religion that is the issue. But the question is whether or not the Old Testament or the New Testament is referenced (yet based on the time period, the Old Testament is more likely the version that is strictly practised).
DeleteFacing reality… a concept almost no one enjoys. Baldwin, quoted from I Am Not Your Negro, calls attention to a reality that white people need to face; he imposes a question that questions why white people decided to create a living hell for Negroes. “If I'm not the nigger here, and if you invented him, you the white people invented him, then you have to find out why. And the future of the country depends on that. Whether or not it is able to ask that question” (1:29). Baldwin explicitly highlights this issue even through our subconscious—the uncomfortable tensions, prior to listening, are intentional. It is the fault that the history of Black oppression is overlooked; it is ignored, and it is misunderstood. America’s dark past is shielded from each generation making it extremely difficult to come to terms with who She is and was. Without the full picture, who are we to judge? It is as if we are suffering through a single story of our own Nation. Doesn’t this mean our understanding of the past is rather incomplete? A single story is only dangerous if we refrain from reading it’s other chapters. However, I notice that white members of our society today are still dishonest with themselves and choose to stay on page One. Without facing reality, it is impossible to successfully move forward as a Nation.
ReplyDeleteIn Sonny Blues, written by James Baldwin, single story themes are also evident. The narrator is shocked to learn that his brother was arrested for drug abuse, and he struggles to empathize and figure out where things went wrong. While reflecting back on his childhood, he revisits old conversations with Sonny; there were moments where Sonny was judged because he was not fully understood. His ambitions for music were teased and deemed unrealistic, “With another part of my mind I was thinking that this would probably turn out to be one of those things kids go through and that I shouldn’t make it seem important by pushing too hard.” The narrator, left with this single story of his brother’s unsuitable goals, fails to understand where Sonny is coming from. He starts to draw connections with Sonny’s music and drug habits, blaming these habits for what they have turned him into. The story concludes with the narrator sobbing while listening to Sonny finally perform. While Sonny plays the instrument he makes his, the emotion, personality, and story behind his notes explain to the narrator everything he misunderstood in the past.
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ReplyDeleteLike Baldwin mentioned in I Am Not Your Negro, it is important to be transparent with yourself by asking the right questions. This can be effective for Jesse in Going to Meet the Man. Jesse, growing up in a family very discriminatory against blacks, had his parent’s beliefs put on him. Jesse was an innocent child; he was too young to comprehend the reality around him. He found himself afraid to outwardly question the oppression and violence he witnessed and just went along with whatever his parents did. After going to the “picnic,” and witnessing the white people viciously murder black people, Jesse was suddenly understanding the differences between the races and learned to associate “good” and “bad” with color. He came to this conclusion with all his questions still unanswered, and growing up, the mindset has stuck and is still left without a foundation. I believe that if Jesse questioned who he has grown up to become, he would find himself lost (how ironic). Jesse is suffering with severe incompleteness behind Black lives and oppression and his stubbornness is dangerous in the possibility to move forward.
These three works shed strong examples of short stories and demonstrate how proper acknowledgment is necessary to move forward. Baldwin successfully delivers this message in different contexts, and is able to reach his audience through not only literature but emotions. He prompts in I Am Not Your Negro that only asking the right questions will give the right answers, and implies that when white people come to terms with themselves and ask why niggers were invented, America will be able to move forward. This single question will move us in the right direction, give rise to relating questions, and the truth will help straighten out the rigid past of this Nation.
I would like to start out by saying that I believe that no single person is ever born a racist, and that all racism is not necessarily taught, but learned and experienced indirectly through society. Racism is artificial, something created to make others feel superior over others. James Baldwin addressed this in one of his speeches, “and you invented it, you the white people invented it” (1:30), with “it” being, racism. In its early stages, racism was created as a means for white people to feel superior than others, but it has evolved since then. Racism, after being passed down through generations and generations, has become much more than just a tool used to make certain people to feel superior. Racism has lead to increased levels of discrimination, including violence and murder. But how could something artificial be passed down to generations hundreds of years later? Perspectives. Younger people, who are not yet racists, are exposed to the racist aspects of society: the media in which movies, radios, and news channels portray certain events in a way that hits younger audiences. In Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues,” the narrator speaks of young schoolchildren and the “darkness of the movies.” The darkness that is in these movies is the racism, and how African-Americans are portrayed. Everything sends a message, especially in the media, and young kids are especially susceptible to falling into these messages. Baldwin explains how big of an effect that the racist media can have on people, shaping their beliefs and morals for them. Similarly, in “Going to Meet the Man,” Jesse, at a young age, goes to the lynching of an innocent black man. Before this moment, Jesse has been completely uninfluenced by racism whatsoever. However, the dark parts of society change that. After Jesse watches the innocent man be brutally murdered and mutilated, Jesse watches his father. Jesse then felt as if his father had “carried him through a mighty test.” This mighty test, as Jesse sees as a coming of age moment, is being exposed to racism for the first time. Once in the past pure and innocent, Jesse now has been exposed to the racist society, which in his perspective, is normal. Younger people like Jesse act as racists because they see in society, in media and film, other people being racist, and follow along as in their perspective, it is just another aspect of society. Without changing how racism is viewed by younger, unexposed people, we will never solve our problem of racism. To start, we must eliminate the bias in our media. We cannot afford to be spreading racist ideas through mainstream media, which many people have access to. Once this is solved, we must work in education, to help form young children’s minds that racism is not a “norm” of society, and that it is quite the opposite. James Baldwin understands that racism was invented by white people and spread through society, with media bias only accelerating it. Perhaps, if we can invent a problem, we can invent the solution in the same way.
ReplyDeleteI really like how your post focused on the fact that racism is something that becomes of a person. I agree that no child is born with racist ideals yet we see in the past and to this day, that they still exist. Jesse, for example, was at first horrified when seeing the lynching. However, after seeing his father's pride and confidence, he felt a certain sense of strength when the racism became engrained in his values for life. I do think that there are ways to better the racial representation in the media yet this will take a lot of time. I think it will be very difficult to better and somewhat heal the struggles of the past and present.
DeleteI thought this post was really interesting, and completely agree with the fact that no child is born a racist, but I wonder if Baldwin wanted to show a darker idea- the one that not only is every child is born ready to become racist, but that every child is also born ready to become a monster, even at a so-called "innocent" age. This is implied during the burning and cutting of the man, in which the narrator says "He began to feel a joy he had never felt before. He watched the hanging, gleaming body, the most beautiful and terrible object he had ever seen till then. One of his father's friends reached up and in his hands he held a knife: and Jesse wished he had been that man." While this reaction would not have occurred had the rest of the crowd been so happy at seeing the man suffer, it describes feelings which the narrator would not be able to discern anyone else having. Therefore, it is probable that these feelings came from somewhere deep inside this child. Rather than being a case of him being happy and excited because other people were happy and excited, this is instead a case of the darkest human fantasies-fantasies which everyone unconsciously harbors but locks away in order to sustain "civility,"-being set free in this child. In this way this story is very similar to Lord of The Flies, as the same "setting free" of dark human impulses happens there too.
DeleteThese two stories by James Baldwin and the documentary based around the writings of his unfinished book project draw a striking parallel between the history of racism against African-Americans in America and the concept of a “single story.” After all, how could any stereotype or bigotry come to life besides through individuals who only acknowledge a single story about the black community? A stereotype or hatred of a group at its very core is predicated on the concept that all members of that group are the same. Baldwin explores this theme in his writing by demonstrating some of the sources this “single story” can come from. In the film “I Am Not Your Negro,” one of Baldwin’s hypotheses argues that the portrayal of African-American characters in the media helps to push a singular narrative of their race. He discusses how while white characters can be found on the big screen demonstrating the vast spectrum of human behavior, black characters are stripped down to one-note personalities and rarely used in a flattering or even “human” light. Baldwin was writing about the state of the media before the 80s in which he died but the same trend can be noted today in programs like the Jerry Springer Show which often showcases African-Americans engaging in violent conflict over trivial things. In “Going to Meet the Man,” Baldwin shows how easy it is for the “single story” to come from within the family. Many children who grow up in racism fall into the same beliefs. As young Jesse watches the mob execution of a black man from atop his father’s shoulders “Jesse loved his father more than he had ever loved him. He felt his father had carried him through a mighty test.” By showing his son something no child could comprehend, Jesse was indoctrinated with racist attitudes without being able to control it. Finally, in “Sonny’s Blues” Baldwin touches upon how the single story can come to African-Americans themselves through their own experiences. The narrator reflects on his students and how “these boys, now, were living as we’d been living then, they were growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities.” From the information we have, the narrator knows no place but the streets of Harlem besides his time in the military (where few African-Americans were allowed to serve.) His entire view of the black community seems to be based around the experiences of living in Harlem which surely were not mirrored all around the world. The “single story” is dangerous because it can come in many forms and sometimes in ways we are unprepared to oppose.
ReplyDeleteSusan Matteucci
DeleteI think your point about how black characters are written as one dimensional is really interesting. It got me thinking about the danger of a single story, and how black characters usually serve one purpose for a story and then are put aside. I think that is what "Sonny's Blues" did so well. Sonny had so many complex layers that could just barely be described with his music. When he first came back from rehab he played as though he "went in one direction, then hesitated and stopped". I didn't bring that up in my blog but it is a big part of all of the stories so thanks for highlighting it.
Can one small occurrence have a large enough ripple to change the tide of American history? Could President Kennedy going hand in hand with one African American student on her first day at her new school cause the protesters to lower their signs, to accept an integrated society, to crush hatred? Hate is grimy, complicated, and dangerous, but it's the drug, throughout history and today, that we can't seem to rip ourselves away from. With out hate, "... [we] will be forced to deal with pain” (Baldwin). This is not to say that everyone openly expresses their hate, but we do make our assumptions about groups of people, and tend to stick with the single sided story. While little to done physical segregation exists in America, there is still a phycological divide that keeps this hate alive. We see it in the news, why is it that we keep on seeing young black men turn up dead at the hand of armed white police officers. We see it through Trump, who can shape the perception of the American people, is so belittling, so hateful, inconsiderate of immigrants, African Americans, and women. Hate is like the security blanket for the single sided story and the single sided story protects the ego of white America, shield the hate, insecurities, and misery away from ourselves and direct it towards other. What are we so afraid of feeling, of facing? One example is the truth, which is that we have done wrong, that our actions can't be justified. In "Sonny Blues" and "Going to Meet the Man" by James Baldwin, hatred and single sided show how afraid of we are of seeing the our world, society, and people in a different light, and what consequences that has.
ReplyDeleteJesse, as an adult, is unsatisfied in the life he is leading. His job continually wears on him, and in no way is in love with his wife. Additionally he pushes down this desire, "the image of a black girl [causing] a distant excitement in him" (1750). These thoughts are painful and incomprehensible for Jesse, the more he tries to dissociate himself with these longings, the more anger builds up, and greater violent action rises out of Jesse. He nearly beats a young boy to death, which is most likely a repeated case, and sexually assaults his wife. 1965 is not as long ago as you think, hate and violence doesn't fade with time, what can change these patterns of destruction and misery. I believe it is the responsibility of our generation to alter this thinking, to show out children the power of harmony and equality, instead separation.
In the perception of his brother, Sonny is a drug addict, it's printed on paper, so it must be true, it must be the complete story. However, this is wildly incorrect, Sonny has an inner struggle, Sonny is a musician, but it wasn't until the end of the story that the narrator realizes this. The love and support of a brother, sister, friend is sometimes the light that we need. But when these people are what we need the most, in when their hooked on the drug of hate and the singled sided story, and cannot possibly heal someone spiraling and self destructive. Sonny tells his brother, "All that hatred down there...all that hatred and misery... It's a wonder it doesn't blow the avenue apart" (Baldwin). Hate blinds us to what is complete, to the love and passion we can show one another. Even today, overall, there is a negative views on drug addicts, but we are all addicted to something much more dangerous. Our close minded, incomplete opinions of others is implemented in our system. There is reason for the way we feel about others, but what are these reasons?
So often, we would rather pretend history is some foreign past thing which we are not responsible for, nor share with the world. We look at the past and pretend it’s an alien story from which we are supposed to learn but not acknowledge as the truth of our own lives. It isn't until we discover the fact that the grandparents of baby boomers may have been slaves when the reality of our world hits us. We are not cleansed of our countries sins simply because a few decades have gone by. Those sins are not gone, they simply live on in the casual confrontations that we don't hear about. In the documentary I Am Not Your Negro, James Baldwin illuminates this reality: that our lives are not separate from the lives of those who murdered, raped, and defiled black protesters, students and citizens for as little as speaking the truth. Baldwin is incredibly compelling; everything he says seems to stick to you like a brand you can’t heal from because the truth of the matter is the racism in this country can’t be healed until it is seen, recognized and altered. However, that being said, Sonny's Blues, while telling the story of Sonny, forms this story of a black man: drug addicted, stuck in Harlem, not able to find a place and not actively trying to alter it, even though Sony, in his own way, does. It makes sense that this is the most commonly anthologized piece because it’s easy to image that this is the easier option than, for one, Going to Meet the Man, which does not paint a picture of the flaws in the world of many black people, but rather, the flaws in white history. We often find it hard to truly hold ourselves accountable and reflect on our past as our own past and not just a story.
ReplyDeleteI found the depiction of some of the characters in Sonny’s Blue very troubling, Creole, for example, not only bearing the name of a piece of black and Caribbean culture, is this large older black man playing jazz, an image I would say is very familiar to most people as the single story of the big, happy black man. Admittedly, upon the description of Creole, “an enormous black man…[putting an arm around Sonny's shoulder]” with his “big voice,” I certainly felt a single story in my own mind. Somehow the real meaning of the story is overshadowed by the norm and we imagine, in this story of a black jazz player overdosing. Yet, somehow that’s the point of the story, we must fight that single story even if it defines who we are, even if that story is the only one we’ve lived. In many cases, when we’re told we are something, we will become it. But, in the discussion between Sonny and his brother about living their whole life suffering, Sonny talks about this storm inside him that he cant let out, and truly it’s this pre-decided fate from which he can’t escape, a fate that is killing him either by his own hand or by society’s. Later in the story, Sonny performs at the jazz bar, and the whole scene is both morosely grim and tragically right. Sonny is doing what he loves, but, what he loves is killing. It’s this cycle of society dictating life and life giving into society. In my mind, Sonny must have felt like a monkey with cymbals, playing his role because it’s both what he wants to do and what he’s taught and told, by the single story, to do.
On the other hand, Going to Meet the Man is the same idea in a much more horrific and vile way. Generationally speaking, Jesse, the 40-something-year-old white man, trying to break up peaceful singing black protesters after being taught as a child that it was godly to hurt the black man. We see Jesse, for a short time, growing up in this culture of hate where, at the age of eight, the n-word is in his useable vocabulary. At the beginning, I had hope for this childhood version of Jesse, when he asks questions like “what did he do?”, even though I knew he would succumb to his own single story. At the lynching you see this turn into the mentality of his father, as “he began to feel a joy he had never felt before. He watched the hanging , gleaming body, the most beautiful and terrible object he had ever seen till then.” We see Jesse become his father as he proceeds to rape his wife in the same manner he was taught, night after night, by his own father-- that the white man's job is to punish and hold power. Terribly, in another respect, the single story of the black man as a happy pawn of the white man, and the modern white man as an unburdened and clean person, is thoroughly broken as the grusume, unfiltered act of deflation is written out plan and clear. It’s writing like this that breaks the sheer possibility of full innocence today. We all hold this powerful and horrible history. I know I can’t say I’m innocent of racism just as much as no one else in the world can, and yes it’s not always our fault what we’re taught, however it is how we proceed with this history that defines us. It is how we choose to look at the truth Baldwin shows us that defines us-- do we deny all association, or do we own it and allow ourselves to redefine ourselves from it?
DeleteSusan Matteucci
DeleteI love the way you draw attention to the fact that we try to separate ourselves from our history. I think in Andover it is easier do. Easier to avoid the label of racism because there is so little diversity here. You said that it is what we are taught. I agree, but I'm wondering if it is equally what we are not taught? Or if that is what you meant. How do you think we should be taught? Because we have this instinct to say that the things we learn about takes place far away or a long time ago. How can we be taught that racism is present here and now?
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ReplyDeleteThe documentary touches upon the idea that today in society we are still working on issues of racism that has lasted a hundred years. In “Sonny’s Blues” Baldwin worked to make the short story an uplifting piece that also touched upon some depressing ideas. It is noticeable in the short story that some of the common ideas, such as his drug addiction beginning in his youth growing up in Harlem, leading to homelessness or death, can ignite dangers of the single story. There was a point when the narrator, Sonny’s brother, was worried that he might never get his brother back and he might never get over his drug addiction. As a reader you had to be careful not to fall into that trap that there wasn’t more to his story and more to his life. One quote that really stuck out to me was when it said “Sonny’s fingers filled the air with life, his life. But that life contained so many others”(47). It is at the end of the piece and to me showed how music has the ability to save people. Sonny could have easily gone on another path that ended up with him not with his brother, not playing music, and without family. Sonny playing music is an aspect that many people can connect with no matter what race they are or what gender they are. Music is a connecting point for people and it brings people together.
ReplyDeleteBaldwin in the other short story “Going to Meet the Man” was a very blunt perspective that instantly gave the idea of the black perspective. He writes how as a little boy, in the moment of the hanging, “loved his father more than he had ever loved him”. The idea of the lynching being drilled into a young boy’s mind as fun or joyful, is an idea that disgusts me as a reader but it was a normality during this time people. When the young boy is sitting on his father’s shoulder and he is looking at his mother who looks so happy. “Well, I told you, said his father, you wasn’t never going to forget this picnic” (1760). This is me is the whole aspect that racism is taught. The way that his parents are raising him is giving him this perspective as a child. He couldn't grasp the concept of black or white and after going to the picnic it confused him even more. Jesse was a really innocent child and growing up he couldn’t understand the difference between which one was good and which was bad.
I really liked how you used the quote about Sonny's fingers because it shows how everyone's lives are intertwined. This is something that can be extremely powerful, but also extremely destructive, depending on the situation. When one person was lynched, in a way many other lives died with them. When one group performed a lynching, many others performed the same lynching in their minds. From this arose great amounts of anger and tension, feeding the lethal cycle. I think it's quite ironic that as much as everyone's lives were connected, there was still such a lack of empathy between races.
DeleteTo quote the brilliant Winston Churchill, "United wishes and good will cannot overcome brute facts...Truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it. Ignorance may deride it. Malice may distort it. But there it is." and in the scope of this piece, indeed the truth there it is and it is undoubtedly uncomfortable. Most evident through the writing, the nature of "Sonny's Blues" can summarize the other pieces so well, "For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn't any other tale to tell, it's the only light we've got in all this darkness." and it's certain key terms which speak volumes above the others beside it. Commanding all works demands the audience keep the idea of freedom in the back of their minds as, "Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that he could help us be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did." and it is only when we listen that we can not only hear but recognize the call it makes.
ReplyDeleteNo matter how old the videos of Baldwin may seem, with their crackling audio and black and white imagery, the issues he discusses are very much present today. Racism takes many forms in the United States, both on a individual and systemic level. The “moral apathy, the death of the heart” that Baldwin describes within America stems from the lack of recognition that “[Baldwin] [is] not a n*****, [he] [is] a man…”. The dehumanization of Baldwin and African Americans provides the foundation for the hate, racism, bigotry, and violence that ensues from white Americans. Stories like “Going to Meet the Man” show the development of this truth. As a child, Jesse had a black friend named Otis. The color of his skin did not matter to Jesse, for it was having a trusting friend that solely mattered to him. Then, Jesse and his family watch a lynching. There, on his father’s shoulders, does Jesse learn to dehumanize. As the crowd cheers at the horrible sight, Jesse goes from addressing the black man as “the man” to “It”. This switch in language, partnered with the racism from his community and father, is seen in Jesse as an adult. As a policeman, Jesse brutally beats the black boys in the jail cells, finding pleasure and satisfaction in the violence. He calls the boys offensive slurs, even comparing one of them to a “bull”. Jesse’s racism reveals the lack of humanity which accompanies racism. While “Going to Meet the Man” shares a story of learning racism, “Sonny’s Blues” describes the consequences of living under it. As the narrator walks around New York City, he notices how “These boys, now, were living as we’d been living then, they were growing up with a rush and their heads bumped abruptly against the low ceiling of their actual possibilities”(18). The lack of control the boys have in their lives is a common theme throughout the story. When talking about heroin, Sonny recalls “It makes you feelーin control. Sometimes you’ve got to have that feeling”(40). Suddenly, the addiction becomes less about the drug itself but the freedom it provides. Under such a racist and oppressive society, many black people like Sonny feel as if they are suffocating. Black citizens aren’t given as much opportunity and freedom because they are not seen as human, or at least as human, as whites.
ReplyDeleteI didn't notice at all that switch in the language, but that was great observation! I really liked how you tied that in with Jesse learning to dehumanize, and I think Baldwin definitely did that on purpose, to show us the transition of Jesse from a child who is not really racist, to one who has already started seeing blacks as subhuman.
DeleteLast year I took US history with Ms. Pina, and we did a lot of talking about race. Although I had some background information on racism and race relations, Baldwin's documentary and short stories gave me several whole new perspectives. I've always wondered why it's so hard for us to end racism, and in "Going to meet the man," Baldwin explores the possible reasons for some people’s deeply engrained racism. I never thought I would have even an understanding, let alone a symathy for those who were racist, but by describing the scene that marks the root of the narrator’s racism, Baldwin gave me some context for the strange beliefs of racism. Quotes like “The sounds of laughing and cursing and wrath-and something else-rolled in waves from the front of the mob to the back. Those in front expressed their delight at what they saw, and this delight rolled backward, wave upon wave, across the clearing, more arid than smoke,” hints at a kind of mob mentality experience. As dangerous as this kind of experience is for adults, it has a larger, more harmful impact on the narrator, and this is what shapes his future beliefs. Baldwin further emphasises this by taking us into the mind of the adult narrator, in the quote “He was only doing his duty. Protecting white people from n*****s and n*****s from themselves. And there were still lots of good n*****s around….and [they] must be mighty sad to see what was happening to their people. They would thank him when this was over,” This shows how blinded he has become due to his childhood experiences, and in a strange way, almost makes the reader feel bad for him, as his actions are really based on denial and misunderstanding rather than actual hate. This is related to the documentary we watched, in which Baldwin says that white america does not hate blacks, as much as it has a sort of apathy for them. He mentioned that the moment he and his white school-mates left the school, they went their separate ways, and didn’t know, or want to know, much about the other’s life outside school. The distance that is mentioned in the documentary is the same distance that is at play between the narrator of “Going to see the man,” and the blacks in the story. Furthermore, this distance is also apparant in “Sonny’s Blues,” although it is made apparant in a different manner. Sonny’s Blues provides an intimate view of life for two blacks who grew up in what seems like present day inner cities. With phrases like “The streets hadn’t changed, though housing projects jutted up out of them now like rocks in the boiling sea,” and “The beat-looking grass lying around isn’t enough to make their lives green, the hedges will never hold out the streets, and they no it. The big windows fool no one, they aren’t big enough to make space out of no space. They don’t bother with windows, they watch the TV screen instead,” Baldwin gives a view of their lives from their perspective, and this perspective is so different from one of someone not living that life, that it shocks us into realizing how much we have misunderstood them. After all, anyone outside of that life would think of housing projects, big windows, green grass and hedges as changing around the community. It is only the apathy mentioned in the Baldwin documentary that keeps us from making the effort needed to truly understand this issue.
ReplyDeleteEven though these stories were written in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, the ideas and topics presented in each are still relevant today. While we have made progress, racism still exists in multiple forms. In “I Am Not Your Negro,” scenes of aggravated violence towards African Americans are depicted, reminding me of police brutality seen in the news today. It has become so common now to see this, that often times I am not even surprised anymore. It is heartbreaking that something so cruel has become so common. Something that struck me from the documentary was when James Baldwin states “I can’t be a pessimist because I am alive… I’m forced to believe that we can survive whatever we must survive." It is troubling how he feels as though he can’t be negative because his life is consistently put in danger. While hearing this, I was reminded that this can still be applied to today, as many African American people do not feel safe in their own country.
ReplyDeleteRacial violence towards African American men is disturbingly portrayed in “Going to Meet the Man.” As a young child, Jesse witnesses a public lynching of an African American man that was turned into a spectacle and glorified by the community. This is a moment that Jesse considers to be one of the proudest of his life, and appears to be a constant thought in his mind. This enhances the idea of the single story, as Jesse has been taught to think like this since he was a young child and doesn’t seem to have the capability to think otherwise. The influence our parents have on us can blind us from seeing all the sides to a story or an idea and impact who we will become as adults.
The danger of the single story is also very evident in “Sonny’s Blues.” The narrator begins to see his brother only as his drug addiction and struggles to understand how this could’ve happened to him. Until the brother shows him his passion for jazz music, the narrator does not see all sides to him, as he has been blinded by his problems. The brother is able to pour his emotions and struggles through his music and the narrator is finally able to “hear what he had gone through, and would continue to go through until he came to rest in earth.” (47) Baldwin heavily discusses the bond of brothers throughout the story. He even mentions the narrator’s father and his brother and the trauma associated with the father seeing his own brother get run down by a car of white men who never even bothered to stop. The lack of respect the men had for the brother is startling and shows how young African American men were treated back then. Racial violence and Baldwin’s discussions of race in America are still prevalent in our society today.
Susan Matteucci
ReplyDelete“No one wants to smell their own stink”. When this line came up in Sonny’s Blues I found I could connect it to everything we have been talking about. The main idea is denial. When we talk about race, people always say “well, not all white people do these things”. Sure, that is true, but white people have to take responsibility for the things their race has done, things they may have done without realizing. When Sonny says this, he’s talking about how he didn’t want to acknowledge how far he had fallen into drugs. He did not want to think about what he had become. He confessed, however, that “it was good to smell your own stink”. He needed to confront his problems and he did so through music. When he lived with Isabel, she said it “wasn’t like living with a person at all, it was like living with sound”. Sonny’s blues represents his life. It was a way for him to confront himself. James Baldwin points at Sonny in his piece and basically says; this is what having humility is supposed to look like. He wrote about a black man discovering his own flaws, realizing he had been wrong and now fighting to get back on the right track.
In the documentary I Am Not Your Negro, a movie clip was shown of a white man screaming “Poor n***, well what about me!?” He didn’t want to smell his own stink. He wanted to focus on his own suffering. He was buried in his own ignorance.
Jesse in Going to Meet the Man remembered the first time he learned to ignore the smell. He had fond memories of sitting on his father’s shoulders, watching his neighbors kill a black man slowly and painfully. He’s eight and being taught all the wrong things. Being taught how to ignore the racist stink. As an adult, Jesse goes back to these lessons to justify his actions.
Unlike Jesse, who forcefully ignored his own stink, our town seems to be unaware that they have a stench at all. No white person in Andover, at least no one I talk to, thinks that they are inherently better than people of color. The problem with the people in Andover, my peers and I included, is that we’re all just so goddamn stupid. We don’t acknowledge our stink because we don’t realize it’s there. The reason for this is because we (or I, since I don’t want to speak for everyone) don’t have much diversity and perspective in our town. I have never really learned about these topics outside of To Kill A Mockingbird. I have only read the single story. I am ignorant. When I think about this, I realize the best thing to do is own up to it. I should be reading, not writing. People like Toni Morrison and James Baldwin write to educate me. I just need to be open to learning.
Wow, I think your use of the original stink quote is extremely powerful and a great basis for your whole post. Although I agree that many people in our town do not smell our own stink due to a lack of awareness, I don't believe this constitutes stupidity. Even if we try and be aware of our privilege, lack of diversity, etc, it is still difficult to fully understand what it all truly means because many of us have nothing to compare it too. For example, I have only lived in Andover for my whole life, and I don't have much experience of what life is truly like in a town less fortunate, or a town much more diverse. As much as I try to be aware and educated about this, I don't believe I can ever really understand the struggles others face unless I at one point experience it firsthand. This to me is not being stupid, but fully acknowledging my lack of exposure and true understanding in these fields.
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ReplyDeleteWhen examining the three works what resonated with me the most was the idea of conditional versus unconditional love. The documentary “I Am Not Your Negro” addresses Attorney General Robert Kennedy’s confined thinking during the Civil Rights Movement. He refuses to ask his brother, the President, to provide federal agents to walk an African American girl to school in the South saying, “it would be a meaningless gesture.” His love for the country stops at a certain point and he does not listen to full stories. When Kennedy talks encouragingly about a black person conceivably becoming president in forty years, he doesn’t understand the deep suffering long before his time which became roots of the movement. This angers African Americans who felt, “[they] were here for 400 years and now [Kennedy] tells [them] that maybe in 40 years, if [they] are good, [they] may let [blacks] become President.” The idea of whites holding the power to “let” another race become leaders is still something I see today. Unlike Kennedy’s finite efforts, the narrator in “Sonny’s Blues” has unconditional love for his struggling brother. It is revealed that their mother had told the narrator that, “[he has] to hold on to [his] brother… and [not] let him fall, no matter what it looks like is happening and no matter how evil [he] gets with him" (104). The idea of loving someone “no matter what it looks like is happening” requires a rare understanding that goes beyond outwards actions or appearances, something Kennedy wasn’t doing. The narrator remembers that when Sonny first learned to walk, “he walked from [their] mother straight to [him]” (57) and that he “caught him just before he fell” (57). The narrator basically protects his brother from birth and wants to “catch” Sonny as he’s falling again from addiction. Their early bond never disappears and has no permanent bounds, allowing the brothers to aid each other through hardships.
ReplyDeleteThe often unconditional bond between family members can lead to both positive and negative influences. When children have deep respect for their parent, they want to be just like them and follow what they say. For the narrator in “Sonny’s Blues,” that meant following his mother’s words of caring for Sonny no matter the situation. Similarly, I feel in today individuals bond together to fight for equality and justice for their people in every possible way. In “Going to Meet the Man,” Jesse is conditioned by his parents at a young age to have racist tendencies. He learns from them to know only a single story and therefore thinks of blacks as very different than himself. The lack of solemn at the lynching Jesse’s family attends is haunting. Today, this lack of solemn is still present, but some people don’t see or recognize the issue. This shows conditional love still exists, even if we aren’t always aware of it.
In order to bridge emotional and racial gaps, people use an array of methods. Sonny tries to explain that music is a positive influence in his life but the narrator doesn’t understand until he hears Sonny play at a club. When people have such a strong relationship, they’re able to evoke emotions out of each other. Sonny’s talent of music extracted buried sadness within the narrator about his miscarried “little girl” and “Isabel’s tears” which weren’t mentioned before the club night. Within the Civil Right Movement, leaders used a variety of talents to evoke memories, emotions and motivation out of listeners. Through this, they were able to build trust and relatability, adding to the momentum of the movement. James Baldwin was able to vocalize what many African Americans were feeling, but did not know how to say. His unconditional effort was similar to that of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X who also used their love for their country and their people to fuel awareness on the injustices in society. Activists today recognize that although progress may seem slow at times, their talents are the vehicles essential to bettering our world one “meaningless gesture” at a time.
Shown in the various forms of literature and documentary is the idea of unconditional and conditional support. Baldwin speaks on it various times in his documentary when speaking on the movements made when rallying for a more inclusive society. When Martin Luther King asked the president to support the integration of school, he was given the response that it would be "a meaningless gesture". This "meaningless gesture" purpose was to provide support for a young black student who was prohibited from entering school by many angry white protesters. The president was asked to do this in order to show his support for the movement. Instead he chose not to do so and prevented meaningful change from occurring through his own support. It is in "Sonny's Blues" where we as readers are exposed to the true meaning of love and support in a family. Although the narrator's brother struggled with addiction, the narrator continued to remain by his brother's side. This is reinforced by his mother who constantly stated “[he has] to hold on to [his] brother… and [not] let him fall, no matter what it looks like is happening and no matter how evil [he] gets with him" (104).This continuous reminder allowed for the narrator to never lose sight of the true meaning of family and unconditional love and support.
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