James Baldwin writing in the August 1965 issue of Ebony magazine, starting on page 47:
My point of view certainly is formed by my history, and it is probable that only a creature despised by history finds history a questionable matter. On the other hand, people who imagine history flatters them (as it does, indeed, since they wrote it) are impaled on their history like a butterfly on a pin and become incapable of seeing or changing themselves, or the world.
This is the place in which, it seems to me, most white Americans find themselves. Impaled. They are dimly, or vividly, aware that the history they have fed themselves is mainly a lie, but they do not know how to release themselves from it, and they suffer enormously from the resulting personal incoherence. This incoherence is heard nowhere more plainly than in those stammering, terrified dialogues white Americans sometimes entertain with that black conscience, the black man in America.
The nature of this stammering can be reduced to a plea:
Do not blame me. I was not there. I did not do it. My history has nothing to do with Europe or the slave trade. Anyway, it was your chiefs who sold you to me. I was not present on the middle passage. I am not responsible for the textile mills of Manchester, or the cotton fields of Mississippi. Besides, consider how the English, too, suffered in those mills and in those awful cities! I also despise the governors of Southern states and the sheriffs of Southern counties, and I also want your child to have a decent education and rise as high as his capabilities will permit. I have nothing against you, nothing! What have you got against me? What do you want?
But, on the same day, in another gathering, and in the most private chamber of his heart always, the white American, remains proud of that history for which he does not wish to pay, and from which, materially, he has profited so much.
On that same day, in another gathering, and in the most private chamber of his heart always, the black American finds himself facing the terrible roster of his lost: the dead, black junkie; the defeated, black father; the unutterably weary, black mother; the unutterably ruined black girl. And one begins to suspect an awful thing: that people believe that they deserve their history, and that when they operate on this belief, they perish. But one knows that they can scarcely avoid believing that they deserve it; one’s short time on this earth is very mysterious and very dark and very hard. I have known many black men and women and black boys and girls who really believed that it was better to be white than black, whose lives were ruined or ended by this belief; and I, myself, carried the seeds of this destruction within me for a long time.
See also:
How many generations does collective guilt last I wonder?
LikeLike
^^^When did it begin?
LikeLike
“What have you got against me? What do you want? But, on the same day, in another gathering, and in the most private chamber of his heart always, the white American, remains proud of that history for which he does not wish to pay, and from which, materially, he has profited so much.”
Therein lies MUCH of what is still not right, and until it is made right, our (Black American) collective voice will continually cry out and demand justice!
LikeLike
A beautifully insightful piece.
LikeLike
Well said and the scary thing is, this could have been written today.
LikeLike
You’re right, sam. This could have been written today.
The more things change, the more things stay the same.
LikeLike
The White man is quite simply the enemy of the Black man and has taught the whole world to disdain and despise us. Sure there’s a few seemingly “good” ones but they are so few that they are negligible and almost irrelevant. When White people do their evil the few “good” ones are powerless to stop them and when you scratch the surface of these people they usually turn out to be “anti-racist” for narcissistic paternalistic or sexual fetish reasons.
White people will absolutely never stop believing in and practicing White Supremacy ideology because they love it very much; it massages their ego constantly, puts them on a pedestal above all others, gives them the power of life and death over others and gives them the best of everything materially, a situation they intend to perpetuate for eternity and because of that, they will never stop being the enemy of Black people as long as they are on this planet.
LikeLike
Here is the problem, a lack of empathy. We are all born strangers in a strange land. We each have our all too short life live. (as I write this, I’m getting ready for a friends funeral) As slave traders couldn’t/wouldn’t recognize the inhumanity of what they were doing. It seems that we carry that legacy forward in this article the inability to see the humanity of those around us.
I know my history and my history is flawed and imperfect. However, Abagond’s continued article seem to support the idea of racial guilt.
LikeLike
Abagond:
All whites benefit from slavery and colonialism, regardless of generation. The “Don’t Blame Me” argument doesn’t fly with me. Much of the power and wealth in Europe, Central Asia, and The Americas came directly or indirectly from slavery and colonization. That’s a fact, not an opinion. Whites know this to be true, yet, they make no sincere effort to fix the mess their ancestors created. They don’t wanna give up the power and wealth they’ve acquired as a result of the arab and european slave trade…Bottomline! Jealousy and greed are the building blocks of white supremacy. Anybody that says otherwise is a liar. If whites truly loved being white, they wouldn’t spend all of their time trying to be black…Ditto!!!
Tyrone
Black Eros Movement
LikeLike
Great Post
LikeLike
Powerful post!
LikeLike
Like Sam said, this could’ve been written today. Even though it was written in 1965, the same shit happens today. There is no logical explanation for this kind of thinking on the part of whites except that they’re suffering from a severe disorder of the heart, mind, and soul.
LikeLike
Blacks in America benefit from the labor of people all over the world, just the same as Whites, James Baldwin is one of the best American writers ever, and I don’t really think he would disagree with me….the lack of vision here is starting to make me sick, this is my last visit..
LikeLike
@ vanishing point:
You are the one who lacks vision. This blog has a way of positioning the mirror so that we can see our own reflection. And sometimes we don’t like what we see.
LikeLike
Interesting article. A part of it reminded me of the theory of cognitive dissonance:
Cognitive dissonance is a discomfort caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance. They do this by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and actions. Dissonance is also reduced by justifying, blaming, and denying. – Wikipedia
Being fed constant one-sided information about the goodness and ‘freedom’ of America when real history disconfirms that would create a kind of cultural cognitive dissonance. In order to hold on to the standard beliefs dissonance would be reduced by denying what happened, justifying it as common behavior, or blaming the victims. This is just about what we see so maybe there’s something in the theory.
LikeLike
“the lack of vision here is starting to make me sick, this is my last visit..”
Adios!
LikeLike
“James Baldwin is one of the best American writers ever, and I don’t really think he would disagree with me….the lack of vision here is starting to make me sick, this is my last visit..”
Farewell .. you’re welcome to take this quote/gift from the master with you as you depart.
“” People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.””
James Baldwin
LikeLike
This Ebony issue should be added to the list of reading for White History month.
LikeLike