The Fire Next Time James Baldwin Between the World and MeTa
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The Fire Next Time James Baldwin Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates Summary The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin was first published in 1963 Between the World and Me takes the form of a book-length amid the emerging civil rights movement. The work explores religion letter from the author to his son, adopting the structure of Baldwin's The Fire Next Time; the latter is directed, in part, and racial injustice in mid-century America. towards Baldwin's nephew, while the former addresses [2] Baldwin’s first essay, titled ‘My Dungeon Shook — Letter to my Coates's 15-year-old son. Coates's letter is divided into three Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of Emancipation’, takes parts, recounting Coates's experiences as a young man, after the form of a letter to his 14-year old nephew. The second essay, the birth of his son, and during a visit with Mabel Jones. ‘Down at the Cross — Letter from a Region of My Mind’, is an Coates contemplates the feelings, symbolism, and realities [10] autobiographical account of Baldwin’s experiences growing up in associated with being Black in the United States. He New York. It is divided into accounts of his encounters with recapitulates the American history of violence against Black Christianity and, later, with the Nation of Islam. Out of these people and the incommensurate policing of Black youth.[15] compelling stories develops Baldwin’s urgent political, religious The book's tone is poetic and bleak, guided by his experiences critique of America. Baldwin locates religion as the root cause of growing up poor and always at risk of bodily harm. He oppression in America. He indicts religion for perpetuating narrow prioritizes the physical security of African-American bodies thinking, promoting separatism, and urging racial violence. over the tradition in Black Christianity of optimism, "uplift," Though Baldwin’s critique is charged with anger at white America, and faith in eventual justice (i.e., being on God's side). As Coates discussed in a 2015 interview at the Chicago the essay is deeply compassionate and concludes by imagining an Humanities Festival, he was inspired by his college professor alternative America that has overcome racial division. Baldwin Eileen Boris who utilized an extended metaphor of the proposes that white and black citizens must enact radical personal and social change, moving toward deeper thought, understanding and physical body for exploitation by objectification in her course, growth as one nation: “History of Women in America" at Howard University. Her teachings inspired Coates's theme of the physical and visceral If we – and I mean the relatively conscious whites and the experience of racism on the body. His background, which he relatively conscious blacks, who must, like lovers, insist on, or describes as "physicality and chaos," leads him to emphasize create, the consciousness of others – do not falter in our duty the daily corporeal concerns he experiences as an now, we may be able, handful that we are, to end the racial African-American in U.S. culture. Coates's position is that nightmare, and achieve our country, and change the history of absent the religious rhetoric of "hope and dreams and faith and the world. progress," only systems of White supremacy remain along with no real evidence that those systems are bound to [2] https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-fire-next-time-by-james- change. In this way, he disagrees with Martin Luther King, baldwin Jr.'s optimism about integration and Malcolm X's optimism about nationalism. Coates gives an abridged, autobiographical account of his youth "always on guard" in Baltimore and his fear of the physical harm threatened by both the police and the streets. He also feared the rules of code-switching to meet the clashing social norms of the streets, the authorities, and the professional world. He contrasts these experiences with neat suburban life, which he calls "the Dream" because it is an exclusionary fantasy for White people who are enabled by, yet largely ignorant of, their history of privilege and suppression. To become conscious of their gains from slavery, segregation, and [10] voter suppression would shatter that Dream. The book ends with a story about Mabel Jones, the daughter of a sharecropper, who worked and rose in social class to give her children comfortable lives, including private schools and European trips. Her son, Coates's college friend Prince Carmen Jones Jr., was mistakenly tracked and killed by a policeman. Coates uses his friend's story to argue that racism and related [2][16][17] tragedy affects Black people of means as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Between_the_World_and_Me Possible ● Sharp criticism of religion, specifically Christianity and ● One drug use scene parental Nation of Islam? ● The text has been criticized for not offering a concerns ● CommonSenseMedia: brief mentions of drinking / smoking constructive “solution” to the racism of our times Cultural ● Both texts explore/respond to the systemic racism and violence (Baldwin during the 1960s, Coates in our present day) relevance ● Clear connections to Black Lives Matter and racial justice movement of our current times Excerpts Excerpt of the text published by The New Yorker Excerpt of the text published in The Atlantic .