2) Next, compose a thoughtful blog post using evidence from the text and anything from the documentary I am Not Your Negro (2017) in an attempt to explore one of the complex issues Baldwin examined in his discussion of race in America. As stated before, be okay with feeling uncomfortable. Ask questions. Look for feedback. Practice kindness. We can discuss these matters with passion AND civility.
Baldwin approaches the most extreme version of racism and white supremacy head-on, without sugar-coating the unpleasant truth. I think that to some degree, everyone is “responsible for the fire.” We have all at one point put someone else down to make ourselves feel superior and secure our position in front of others. However, no one would want to admit that they are in part “responsible for the fire,” especially after reading this short story. This is the reason why racism is still prevalent today. Like what was discussed in “I Am Not Your Negro,” race is really not the issue here; the issue is that we are not looking honestly at our lives and reflecting on our actions and then choosing to change. We do not like to critically evaluate ourselves because we are afraid of the truth we will reveal; therefore, the topic of racism is constantly pushed back and avoided. Baldwin’s writings are understandably controversial, but it is necessary now more than ever. It is very disturbing to read about a community of white supremacists that finds lynching entertaining and thinks it is acceptable to throw rocks at an already tortured human. It is even more disturbing that Jesse’s father called the trip to see the lynching a “picnic.” However, I think that Baldwin felt he needed to go to this extreme to make people listen and seriously reconsider their actions. Probably the saddest part of “Going to Meet the Man” is the fact that Jesse is being taught from a young age that this mentality is not only acceptable, but right. Baldwin is bringing to our attention that racism will not just end on its own. The current generation needs to make an effort to improve the influence they are having on the younger generation so that they do not repeat history.
ReplyDeleteIn “I Am Not Your Negro” James Baldwin takes on a different path from his writings in “Going to Meet the Man”, although they both sprout from experiences in his own life. While “I Am Not Your Negro” educates on African American history through the perspective of his own eyes and what he saw in the media. However, Baldwin did not stray from leaving any gruesome details out from “Going To Meet the Man”, as he describes the treatment of African Americans through the eyes of a forty-two year old white man. A quote Baldwin includes in the movie is by Martin Luther King Jr., “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.” Which speaks very true to our main character, Jesse, who is a sheriff. This quote is much like the way Jesse is perceived since he is not in support of “social uplift”, or equality. Baldwin used Jesse to represent the people who support white supremacy. At the end of the story, Jesse’s opinion never changes and it can be argued that his hatred grows stronger as he recalls his memories. While reading, the name ‘Big Jim C.’ was a clean personification of the actual laws made to continue segregation throughout the country. As ‘Big Jim C.’ apprehends Julia’s grandson, it is Baldwin’s representation of what the laws did. Through Baldwin, we are able to see two sides of racism in America.
ReplyDeleteJames Baldwin interestingly talks about a white person’s perspective on discrimination when describing the issue of racism. He often talks about the huge disconnect that the two races have and that it is white people’s fault for keeping and perpetrating this type of disconnect. In the film, “I am Not Your Negro” Baldwin states that, “White people do not look as black people as humans they see them as something that they are afraid of”. This is a very strong quote because it directly states the issue that white people really don’t see black people as the same as them on such a deep level that in many cases they don’t see themselves as the same species. In “Going to Meet the Man” Baldwin expresses a racist white man’s inner thoughts and his naive, close minded and highly racist view of black people and culture. In the story he talks about how much they often beat and torture black people to make their lives completely miserable. Yet somehow Jesse wonders to himself, “Here they had been in a civilized country for years and they still lived like animals”. The black community is not given any chance or opportunity to live a normal sustainable life and thus have no way to reach a middle class standard of living. Also how are they supposed to act kind and civil when they are tortured and verbally abused all the time?! The black community has not been able to normally live in the US because white people have been constantly treating them as uncivilized and inhumane! Jesse needs to learn the motto of treating others the way you want to be treated.
ReplyDeleteSomething that has always been said a child is never born racist. They are taught to be racist. This is evident in James Baldwin’s “Going to Meet the Man”. Jesse, who was only eight, did not fully understand what racism was. He only knew to follow his parents’ footsteps and they were the ones saying racial slurs and doing racist actions. When they discussed the “picnic” and Jesse’s friend Otis, they said a lot of racist things that Jesse did not understand. “He did not quite understand what was happening, and he did not know what to ask- he had no one to ask.” If he was to ask his parents about racism, they would probably not see their actions as racist. They would say their actions are justified. They were not, but Jesse did not know that. He saw his parents as role models and followed their footsteps. If Jesse was raised in a different environment where his parents taught him that racism was wrong, he would not be racist. He also gave in to the peer pressure of the crowd at the lynching. At first, he was confused at what he was witnessing but as the crowd cheered and his father’s friend held a knife to the black man, “Jesse wished that he had been that man.” As horrible as that sounds, Jesse knew of nothing else. He was surrounded by racist people, who supported the lynching. Him being an eight-year-old kid, did not fully understand what racism was. All he knew was he had to support it because everyone around him is. This kind of environmental pressure is common, everyone experiences it, some see the wrong in the bad pressures and break away from it, but some either cannot see it or cannot break free. In the case of Jesse and his parents, they do not see the wrong in their racist actions. One, because everyone else acts the same way. And two, they were raised to be racist. But I think the point Baldwin is trying to make is, people are not born racist. Jesse showed signs of hesitation and confusion when it came to racist activities. His parents were not born racist either, they were raised into it. This leads to the idea that some people can be racist without knowing it because they were never told that it was wrong. Ignorance gets the best of everyone and can bring out the worst in people.
ReplyDeleteI agree. The piece was striking in that it showed Jesse internally resisting racism in his own eight-year-old way. When I was reading through the first time, I found the quote you chose to be poignant as well, for it is truly sad that, "He did not quite understand what was happening, and he did not know what to ask- he had no one to ask.” This helps to show how racism perpetuates from generation to generation. Ignorance breeds ignorance, and you showed how this ignorance can lead to utter moral depletion.
DeleteIn James Baldwin’s “Going to meet the man” and in his movie “I am not your Negro” They both focus on racism in america. In Baldwin’s story it is the most severe form of white supremacy. It is most definitaly in the south and I belive that the case is similar to what happens in To Kill A Mockingbird but instead of the black man being innocent he is guilty and they burn and torture him. In the story they say that every man there is responsible for the fire which I agree with because of again the single story people won’t believe a black man against a white woman because they believe that she would never lie and it shows just how much power white has over black in that culture. Now the narrator is an adolescent and doesn’t fully comprehend what is going on because when they start to burn the black man he is shocked out of his mind, and is startled. “He didn't quite know what was happening, and he did not know how to ask”. Because he is so young he thought he was going to a picnic and he didn’t realize that he was watching someone get that hurt which meant that he was now at the ge where he could be exposed to things like that and learn. Jesse obviously felt uncomfortable in the beginning of the burning and when they got rid of his manhood at the end of the story because all he wanted to know was what was so bad that he needed to be treated this way. Some questions I have are Why did things need to escalate that that extent? Why did they dehumanize him by cutting off his genitals? And why were they so against him?
ReplyDeleteI would disagree, the point of both “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Going to Meet the Man” is not the guilt or innocence of the accused but the institutionalized racism that proliferated not only the justice system but the social climate that allows for extrajudicial lynchings.
DeleteI feel like Baldwin's main focus for inluding such atrocity was to reflect this groups undying hatred and racism and connect it to most white people's mind set in the South towards Black people. I feel like that's why he didn't quite include if the man was innocent or not to whatever they are accusing him of.
DeleteJames Baldwin writes this story from the point of view of a white supremacist, and exemplifies the ugliness and horror of racism at its core. The story is written in a way showing the hatred that the narrator has in his adult life, and then shares a retelling of how the narrator was taught to view different people in this world. In his writing, Baldwin examines how racism continues through generations. The narrator at the beginning, “did not quite understand what was happening, and he did not quite know what to ask...but he did not dare” when his parents brought him to something that then the narrator speaks “...had revealed to him a great secret which would be the key to his life forever.” This secret was racism and hatred. In I Am Not Your Negro, Baldwin also examines racism and how it continues, but through the perspective of 3 leaders in the movement against segregation and racism; whereas in this story is it through the perspective of a white supremacist. The racism in Going to Meet the Man continues when “Those in front expressed their delight in what they saw, and this delight rolled backward,, wave upon wave…” and though the story was written in 1965, this cycle of how racist thoughts are spread is still applicable in modern day. Baldwin examines the way racism can be spread through families and communities from the perspective of a white man as a warning over how easily his thoughts changed as a young boy from being concerned for his friend, to then build his adult life with a mindset full of hatred towards groups of people. Baldwin writes as a warning that the wave of racism is easily spread and learned throughout society, and that the fight against racism is still occurring.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that James Baldwin was able to predict the future so clearly in the film "I am Not Your Negro" with manuscripts that were written just before his death in the 60s. The fact that those manuscripts are able to so clearly represent shows the continuous cycle of racism and how it is not easy to break a cycle once it has been started. Although certain aspects of racism have been "resolved" such as segregation and the right to vote, the cycle still continues to spin with other things playing a part.
Delete“Going to meet the man” deals directly with the ‘root’ of racism in america. What I mean by ‘root’ is how people become racist. This story discusses how racism is passed on, from generation to generation. This is very important because it is a lesson on how to “beat” racism. In his short story, James baldwin shows the moment in time in which Jesse became a true racist. From how Baldwin describes Jesse’s life before the lynching, the reader can tell that Jesse is racist, but not to the extreme of the people around him. From the way the relationship between Jesse and Otis is described, I am reminded of how younger black and white kids would play together at younger ages, but would be separated by their parents when they were older. This relationship is a metaphor for the relationships between almost all young black and white kids in that time period. The lynching is the turning point in Jesse’s life. This is the point when he becomes a true racist, and is the foundation for his racist ideology. However, the lynching was not the main reason for this. For instance, I read the story and it did not spark and racist values in me. The reason for Jesse’s transformation is his father. After the lynching, Jesse “loved his father more than he had ever loved him before. He felt that his father had carried him through a mighty test, had revealed to him a great secret which would be the key to his life in the future.” This line made it clear to me the message that Baldwin was trying to convey: racism is passed down through the family.
ReplyDeleteBlack people in America were treated like nothing in the 50s and 60s. Men just like Jesse occupied every corner of the country. He believed that these people were criminals and were deserving of torture because of their skin color. Jesse, “a God-fearing man”, wondered, “what had the good Lord Almighty had in mind when he made” black people (1382)? He thought that an entire race of “animals” only needed beating and abuse to understand their place in society. This act only fueled their defiance more. Malcolm X had once stated that “love for the oppressor disarms the Negro”, implying that the only answer to violence was more retaliated violence. By taking the abuse and showing love in return, it’s only proving that how the white man is acting is acceptable. That it was normal to hang black people by the wrists on trees and burn them in fires, mutilate them, and abuse them to the point where “the head was caved in, one eye was torn out, one ear was hanging” (1392). It’s not a matter of what to do, it’s more a matter of how long people would’ve had to withstand these crimes and accept this fate.
ReplyDeleteMalcolm X's perspective on fighting fire with fire is covered in the story too. Jesse is angered that black people are retaliating and giving punches back. He is not used to this because white people have been fought with love for so long. But this brings up the question of "does that make us as bad as they are?" Fighting with violence is succumbing to the prejudicial and violent attitude. This internal conflict has been and may continue to define race relations for years.
DeleteI thought that it was interesting as well that "Going to Meet the Man" portrayed both the violent and non-violent style of protest just as it is mentioned in "I Am Not Your Negro" in the debate between Malcolm X and Martin Luther.
DeleteAn interesting point that was brought up through the story Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin is the concept of how someone comes to be racist. Jesse, the main character of the story, was not always the racist, anti-african american person who viewed African Americans as being “no better than animals” but rather was shaped into the person he was at the end of the story overtime. People are not born evil, but rather born with a clean slate. How a person acts and who they become develop as they grow up and start to learn things from what is around them. Jesse grew up in a family in which it was normal to attend a lynching. His mother even went as far as to wearing the “dress she wore to church” demonstrating that she equated this monstrosity of an event with something holy and spiritual. His father even had an eager look on his face, excited to know that his son “won’t ever forget this picnic” knowing the horrors that are going to ensue within the next few hours. Despite having an African American friend named Otis whom he “wrestled together” with “in the dirt” Jesse still transformed into a person who “found it easy to scare” African Americans and enjoyed doing so. Jesse did not come out of the womb believing all African Americans are horrible people and white’s are superior but rather learned it along the way from his parents as well as the community around him. James Baldwin also addresses this concept in the film I am Not your Negro by describing how most White Americans were not even able to realize that they were doing anything wrong in their treatment of African Americans. This is because the cruel treatment of African Americans was all they had ever seen or been taught so it was only what was natural to them. These tendencies developed as a result of a cycle that is very difficult to break, one in which people must go away from the crowd and venture off on their own.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point that Baldwin writes this story to share the message that people are not born evil, and how a person acts develops from the behavior and morals around them. It is to showcase that the concept of racism is not intrinsically in us, but that each generation as a whole teaches their children values that align with racism. Do you think that Baldwin is using this piece of writing as a warning to how the cycle of racism continues through generations?
DeleteJesse, the main character of “Going to Meet the Man”, has lots of psychological trauma from when he was a little boy, resulting in his sporadic, paranoid, and aggressive behavior as seen in the story. James Baldwin stated in a debate with William F. Buckley that he believed white people living during his time were “raised to believe… that no matter how terrible their lives may be… they have one enormous knowledge in consolation, which is like a heavenly revelation: at least, they are not Black.” Baldwin suggests that this developed mentality is one of “the worst things that can happen to a human being”, since it signifies an unknowing obsession with racism among the white community of old. Jesse is a common example of a man whose experiences as a young boy caused him to become obsessed with racism as an older person, and his life is clearly something to be pitied. He spends his days electrocuting black men with cattle prods in the streets, is very turned on by his violently sexual thoughts towards black women, can’t make love to his wife without imagining her as a slave girl, and is haunted by suppressed memories of his childhood. Jesse was so scarred by the burning and castration of the black man he saw when he was little that he wants all black people to go away. Clearly Jesse did not hate black people before the public lynching since one of his best friends, Otis, was a black boy. No one is born hating others, they have to be taught how to hate and who to hate. I think Baldwin wrote this piece not as a message to black people, but as a warning to white people. Raising your children by exposing them to violence and teaching them to hate can only result in a more divided, more violent, more tragic future. Don’t contribute to “the fire”, be the one to put it out.
ReplyDeleteRacism can’t be made palatable. The vast majority of the American populace was white at the time of “Going to Meet the Man,” and hearing about their collective history, the deeds of their forebears, was not what they wanted. Nobody wants to be pigeon holed and told that they did this, they stood by and let it happen. Nobody wants to know that it was their fathers, mothers and friends that took part in a violent oppression, and that so many harbored radical views of what it means to be a white American, and how that identity ties into ridding the country of the blacks. However, Baldwin effectively paints the bloody truth, and isn’t afraid to get in one’s face with the gory details of true racism that occured in the South.
ReplyDeleteIt does no one any good to discuss racism like discussing shapes and colors to a preschooler. It’s more like angles, with degrees spanning an entire circle and various sines, cosines and tangents without an answer that whole and tidy. The main character of “Going to Meet the Man,” as a child, said that “‘Otis didn’t do nothing!’” This was in reference to one of his friends, Otis, who was black. Children aren’t born feeling that some people ought to be raised up higher than others, they only perceive that people in their group, not necessarily a racial group, are better than outsiders. Jesse, the main character, as a child, saw Otis like himself, and felt that it was unfair that Otis was somehow being punished for something that he didn’t do. However, Jesse’s overbearing father played a powerful in his evolution to adulthood. Jesse’s father made very ominous remarks about Otis, like when he told Jesse that “we just want to make sure that Otis don’t do nothing… and you tell him what your Daddy said, you hear?” This statement is not ambivalent. Jesse’s father hates black people and is weaning his son onto a diet of white supremacy, by starting small and then working up to larger doses. The world “we” in the father’s remark has the connotation not unlike the connotation of “The White Man’s Burden.” The “White Man’s Burden” describes the trouble that slave owners face to try to ‘civilize their chattels and lift up blacks through slavery. The white man is the hero of the story, but also in charge of the narrative. The ‘we’ in this usage, describes only white people of a certain mindset, a mindset that Jesse’s father hopes his son will one day possess.
Your attention to the use of the word we feels very relevant to extremist groups today as well, which are often held together by young me who feel outcast from society, who need a support group to give them purpose. They latch on to some aspect of their shared identity and use that to determine worth, so that they can feel like people of value, and use each other to reinforce it.
DeleteThat was quite simply one of the most disturbing stories I had ever read. Disturbing in detail, and the fact that this is probably not far from events that happened in real life. I think that Baldwin delves into the mind of truly disturbed racist Americans very well. I thought that he was bold to use the "nature vs. nurture" route, like how a boy who is not inherently racist can develop such an absolutely abominable mindset from the way that he interacts with his parents and what is taught to him. Although I'm usually a fan of the "write about what you know about" style of storytelling, I think that Baldwin does more than an adequate job with his imagination into the mind of a racist. To touch back on my comment of, "nature vs. nurture", I wonder what you all as my fellow classmates think. Was Jesse a kind and accepting kid who was taught to be a dirty minded and terrible racist, or was he always racist to begin with? I personally think that he was a kind person to before he was influenced. I think this because of how clueless he was to the situation when it started. I think that his vulgar ass language to describe black people was only because he was never taught that they can also be called black or African American. Jesse is the product of a racist culture raising racist children, the mob mentality of a hatred that is just manifested evil. Sorry I'm not in class to participate in this conversation, I'm in Boston at a climate strike. I hope you all learn something new!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that being racist, or really any characteristics, good or bad, are things that are "learned" over time due to influence from family, friends, society, or other parts of the environment one grows up in. Based on some of the other responses, a lot of others seem to believe the same thing.
DeleteEthan, I agree with you. I think that the Jesse became racist inevitably because it was all he had ever known and the actions of the people around him especially his parents made his cruel actions the norm and he was not able to truly understand what he was doing.
DeleteIgnorance is the gateway to evil. By ignoring our apprehensions and merely thinking with the group, we are far closer to this evil than we may realize. In the piece, “Going to Meet the Man”, by James Baldwin, the author deeply examines how the constant and unrelenting ignorance of generations can foster an environment of hatred and evil. The main character, a white deputy sheriff, believes himself to be a “good man, a God-fearing man”, while his actions seem to prove otherwise. Throughout the piece he lays in bed wide-eyed, recalling how he brutally beat an innocent African American boy, for he recalls himself prodding and poking while the boy, “rolled around in his own dirt and water and blood, and tried to scream again as the prod hit his testicles.” Upon seeing this indescribable suffering, he somehow becomes even angrier, coming to the far fetched realization that this was not a boy, “ this is a goddamn bull”. The sheer ignorance is chilling. Rather than fully think about what he is doing, he distances himself from his atrocities by dehumanizing his victim. In the documentary, “I am Not Your Negro”, Baldwin says that the main issue of racism is not primarily of white people deeply hating African Americans, the true problem is the evil ignorance and “moral insensitivity” that fosters this hatred. In this piece, Baldwin shows how ignorance can breed unthinking evil, and in doing so reminds us all to continuously examine our own morals and principles, just to make sure that we are always truly “good, God-fearing people”.
ReplyDeleteI think that evil ignorance is a good way to put it, but I wouldn't call it unthinking. To me it more of an active ignorance, where racism is created by those trying their hardest to ignore any indication of their own injustices.
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ReplyDeleteIt's not about the actual color anymore, it was about the ignorance and segregation that has been passed on. From watching the James Baldwin documentary for the past three classes, that is what I have gathered. The short story, “Going to Meet the Man” can attest to that fact. Firstly, making a misogynist and a racist as the main character is an abnormal yet creative venture. Baldwin puts forth his artistic license and the result is something nail-biting and heart-wrenching. Jesse is the perfect example of an overt as well as covert racist and putting the reader into that point of view creates an experience that highlights the societal negligence of colored peoples as well as points out that change will not take place without ownership or acceptance. The color was the issue but now it has morphed into something else entirely. The stereotypes have been passed on, not the discrimination of the melanin itself. When you see it from Jesse’s view, that is made clear. Today, even if there are white people who read the story and think they are not part of the problem, they may be right to a certain extent. But they are still benefiting from the way the country was structured to oppress those of color. They are not part of the creation, but they are still benefitting from it. Unless we work to denature this biased societal privilege, we will be part of the problem.
Going to Meet the Man is divided into three parts, corresponding to the three stages of Jesse’s life. Jesse, the protagonist of the story, is a deputy sheriff in a small southern town. The first and the second stages are in his flashback and are divided by his experience of watching a cruel lynching of an young African American. The third stage is his present life: the sheriff is dealing with the growing racial tension in the turmoil of civil rights movement .
ReplyDeleteJesse is an innocent boy in his first stage of life. “He had a black friend, his age, eight, who lived nearby. His name was Otis. They wrestled together in the dirt”, regardless of race, they were just boys who liked to play together.
His life moves onto the second stage by a lynching of a an African American who had pushed a white woman. Jesse witnesses first hand the unjust torture and gruesome murder of a man based on his race. The scene is too much for a 8 year-old boy who naturally doesn’t know how to response. However, the people around him teach him. Before coming to watch the execution, a group of people in his front yard dressed as if they were about to head to Sunday service. His dad told him that “‘[they]’re going on a [wonderful] picnic [that he] won’t ever forget.” Upon his arrival, a mob standing before a spectacle has been cheering and raising the level of excitement to a tangible level. His dad quickly places the Jesse on his shoulders and doesn’t want him to miss a thing. “He watched his mother’s face. Her eyes were very bright, her mouth was open: she was more beautiful than he and ever seen her, and more strange.” Like his mom and the others, Jesse “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 that he had been that man.” Jesse’s society, his parents’ attitudes and behaviors teach him how to think and react with the lynching and racism. Following the norm in his society, Jesse starts to treat the victim as an animal and accept that the lynching is a celebration with food, laughing, smiling and dressing up. Growing up in an extremely racist society, Jesse has gone from an innocent young boy to a racist in a day. The racist attitudes and beliefs he got impact him throughout his life.
Since childhood, the myth of white supremacy in Jesse’s mind has gone undisturbed until the “present.” He is now in the turmoil of Civil Rights Movement. The black protesters are sent to jail instead of being lynched. They "had this line … to register" to vote and fight for equal rights as they did in “I am Not Your Negro.” Jesse and other white people sense a “black suspicion” that they are fighting an unspoken “war” against black Americans. White people around Jesse have become “much quieter than they were” about their racism and have changed “the tone of their jokes” about black people. Generally, Jesse’s the racist beliefs that he has had since a child has been challenged. This threatens his supremacy over “animals,” makes him feel unsafe and inquietude, and causes psychological problems for him. He beats the man at the courthouse without self-control in an attempt to ensure his supremacy. He is inharmonious with his wife as he feels that he is fragile and losing power. Only the memory of the old time could help him regain his confidence, “Something bubbled up in him, his nature returned to him. He thought of the boy in the cell; he thought of the man in the fire: he thought of the knife and grabbed himself.”
Children are more likely to follow the people around them and close to them. In Going to Meet the Man, James Baldwin not only wants to show how cruel the racists are, but also revels how the society and parents’ racists attitudes and behaviors influence their children. He alerts us the most cruel reality is that racist beliefs and attitudes are passed from generation to generation.
I like how you to described Jesse's experience at the public lynching. I find it strange that he would, after such a traumatic scene, feel so much love towards his parents, who were directly responsible for his terror. Is it brainwashing? Or is it that Jesse just wants to mimic the older folks around him?
DeleteYes, it is strange that Jesse feels more intense love toward his parents after witnessing the gruesome scene. Upon further thought, I can understand how it happened. Children are born without a prejudice. Their mind are clean slates waiting to be formed. Whenever young Jesse encounters something for the first time, he always comes to his parents for help and learn from them how to handle it and how to think about it. So, when Jesse sees the lynching, he naturally feels scared and follows his parents’ reactions.
Delete“Going to Meet the Man” was a really hard story for me to read. I feel that Jesse lets us too far into his head, which made reading this extremely uncomfortable. I almost felt invasive, because of how upfront and transparent Jesse is in his thoughts. Hearing about his sexual desires and his childhood trauma was sickening, and it’s made worse when he adds an ample amount of racist comments to his retellings. Jesse is no prude in his words. He describes things and events in a derogatory way that any self respecting person wouldn’t dare to utter aloud.
ReplyDeleteI think the most awful part about Jesse is his need to sexualize moments of pain and suffering and uses them for his own satisfaction. When he and his wife are trying to have sex one night, Jesse isn’t excited enough by his spouse. So, he remembers a lynching he watched when he was a child. The scene he describes is terrible, a bloodied man surrounded in flames, screaming and crying while a white man cuts off his genitals. In this terrible moment, Jesse makes it even more terrible by twisting the scene into something sexual. He recalls that when they were mutilating the man’s genitals, “the white hand stretched them, cradled them, caressed them.” Remembering this scene causes Jesse to feel awakened again sexually, and then he has sex with his wife… who is, by then, asleep.
It’s hard to read this story and not call Jesse a racist. Is it possible to argue that he isn’t a racist? He says that all black people “were animals, they were no better than animals, what could be done with people like that? Here they had been in a civilized country for years and they still lived like animals.” I think Jesse’s outlook on other races stems from parental figures in his life. His mother and father, who brought him to that lynching when he was younger, planted the seed of racism in Jesse’s young mind. We never hear if Jesse ever saw another lynching after this one, but I think that the one time was enough.
Baldwins “Going to Meet the Man” is rife with symbolism and allegory. It's not hard to see the connection between the character “Big Jim C.” and the racist jim crow policies of the 1950s and ’60s. The fact that the registration line wouldn't stand where “Big Jim C.” wanted is evidence to this point since after the passage of legislation in ‘64 and ‘65 black people “wouldn't stay where Big Jim C. wanted them to.” Throughout the story, the ideas of sexuality and race are inextricably linked. As we see, in the beginning of jesses life he is traumatized by the image of a naked black man being castrated and lynched. In this moment Jessee undergoes a loss of innocence and for the rest of his life will link sexual acts with black people. This comes to prominence when he is beating the young civil rights leader and thinks about Old Julia. It worth remembering how social the lynching was; the brutal lynching of the black man was equated to just a regular picnic. It's interesting to me how Baldwin envisions the passage of the metaphorical torch of racism; Baldwin describes how racism is passed from generation to generation.
ReplyDeleteI’m a big believer that evils aren’t born, they’re instilled into people by family, friends, and society as a whole. James Baldwin explores the issue of racism being learned at an early age. The main character, Jesse, when he was just eight years old, had to witness a brutal lynching of a black man. At the time, he didn’t completely understand what was happening, or the severity of it. He was simply going with the crowd/parents. Fast forward back to the present-day, and Jesse has just helped arrest and torment a black man who was protesting. He then realizes how the singing from the other protesters was the same as the singing from the lynching all those years ago, and also realizes he had met the man before. The man was only a child, but Jesse already stereotyped him as disrespectful and insolent. It’s just the way he was raised and how society viewed blacks that shaped his beliefs without him ever realizing it,
ReplyDeleteFrom a young age children are learn to follow their parents and Jesse did what he was told, because he feared his father. As an adult Jesse needs to entstill fear in others because of the example his father set. Once the black community begins to speak out he can't understand, because he was not brought up to disobey.
DeleteI agree with you Will because he was such an innocent kid and his parents led to him to become what he will inevitably become. He needs to asct like his father when he is older because that was the way he was raised and that's how he knows what to do.
DeleteA constant literary tool that I see used in novels that depict the Jim Crow era is the use of understatement, where the author will purposely understate a topic to, counterintuitively, draw attention and discussion to it. James Baldwin in “Going to Meet the Man” follows this trend through the dialogue of the white men in the story. For example, he portrays the police department as casually joking of trashing black homes and one of the officers stating that “if the niggers had all lived in one place, they could have kept the fire in one place.” without giving a second thought to burning their houses. This use of understatement is certainly popular for the fact that it is effective in portraying the absolute ignorance and hypocrisy of racists during the era. That is probably why I was particularly drawn to the section of “I Am Not Your Negro” where Baldwin notes the different races’ reactions to different scenes in cinema. As an example, remember “The Defiant Ones”, the movie in which Sydney Poitier (the black man) jumps off of the train because John Jackson (the white man) could not get on in time. In contrast to the common use of understatement and implicit writing to describe racism at the time, James Baldwin’s noting of the different reactions in the theatre stands as a concrete, direct, and stark example of how our unconscious biases affect our perceptions of film, and more importantly, of other races.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that stood out to me in the text is the mental gymnastics the sheriff goes through to justify his actions. He goes through some of the classic motions of casual racism. He thinks about “the good ones,” which is one of the most oftenly used casually racist expressions, implying that there is some inherent wrongfulness to his race. Despite the fact that people don’t exactly help support his views, in his mind, he believes that they still do and are forced into silence by the other side, in this case the north. He also calls upon the Bible for support, using religion to make himself feel above the black population. In combination, he uses this to make himself think that the people he oppressed are actually thankful to him. This is made extra horrifying by the fact that he essentially thinks it would be best if he burns down the homes of every black person in the town. He is fueled by paranoia. He fears the black population in a way, that they are out to get him and white society, that they are conspiring against him.
ReplyDeleteI too was amazed by the thought process of the sheriff that justified his actions. However, as you mentioned at the end, he is scared of the black population, and the feeling of fear is the most irrational that humans possess. Fear or heights, depths, and bugs are all mostly irrational, yet people can be petrified by a fly on the wall. There is no convincing them that the bug is harmless, and that is why the fear lasts. The only way to get over a fear is for the person to see the irrationality for themselves. This is what helps keep racism alive. Racism is mostly fear, and no amount of argument can change that fear. The only way to overcome the fear of racism is for the person to realize their error on their own. Often, however, this does not happen, and the person is left to justify their irrational fear.
DeleteA lot of paranoia always seems to come from the mixing church and state. The god-fearing attitude and the power to implement those types of emotions into a society that depends on institutions and legislations is bound to end horribly. Religion has always differed between peoples and races, so when you try to subject others to live under the laws of only one of those religions, which has been subject to many interpretations over the years,there will be insurrection and chaos.
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ReplyDeleteThe story “Going to Meet the Man” embodies the mentally of the Jim Crow South through the experiences of Jesse, a very apparent racist. Here, we see how his inability to perform sexually with his wife makes him think about the night where he witnessed a lynching of a Black man which to the white crowd, was seen as a picnic. Through this story, Baldwin links the sick sexual attraction of African Americans to the racist white mind as after recalling this moment, Jesse was able to perform once again. Baldwin conveys that this power and fear that they cause the oppressed seems to create a sexual arousal in such minds. Baldwin demonstrates how a child can be turned just like their parents as Jesse transforms from an innocent boy playing with Otis to a disgusting racist man after experiencing such atrocity. When reading this story, I linked many of the white actions to my Race and Membership class as we discussed the many ways a domininat’s actions affect their interactions and relations with those apart of the non-dominant group. Here we discussed how dominants avert problems from themselves and blame it back to the non-dominant group. This is so easily seen through Jesse as he says “it wasnt his fault if the niggers had taken into their heids to fight against God and go agasint the rules laid in the Bible for anyone to read!”. We also talked about how dominants deny non-dominants freedom of speech and when members of the non-dominant group defy such standard, they are seen as radicals and ‘troublemakers’. This can then be traced back to modern day issues as this can be connected back to the Black Lives Matter movement and police brutality.
I liked how you connected this short story to your Race and Membership class as well as the Black Lives Matter movement. "Going to Meet the Man" is a story that transcends time and I think you successfully captured that idea in your blog.
Delete“Going to meet the man”, by James Baldwin shows elements of racism in a very distinct light. Instead of focusing on an African American, and their struggle, Baldwin decides to shift the focus onto a single racist cop. This cop has been living in a racist society his entire life and was taken to see lynchings as a young child. In the eyes of Jesse’s society, the narrator says- “He was a good man”. I believe that the institutionalized racism represented piece is the reason why the narrator is quoted as saying that. He, every other white person in this setting had been raised to believe that black people are evil and need to be controlled. In James Baldwin’s film, “I am not Your Negro”, there are specific scenes where white people are holding up signs in protest of integration, often standing in large groups and hyping each other up, this is an excellent example of the mob mentality, a phenomenon that somebody in Jesse’s situation must've experienced countless times. This piece also explores Jesse’s explicit hatred for African Americans, he fantasizes about burning down their houses and other cruel things of this nature. I do not think that people can be born with such insane hatred inside of them and that something like this can only be taught. The narrator says that everyone was suspicious of black people, “Everyone felt this black suspicion in many ways, but no one knew how to express it”, this shows how prevalent these ideas were and how often Jesse must've been exposed to them, shaping the way he thinks and acts. I believe that with this piece Baldwin is exploring the mob mentality and the drastic effects that it can have on a person’s beliefs, ideas, and morals.
ReplyDeleteJesse sees African Americans as animals but is surprised and angered when they won’t obey him and act like human beings. The white men fear the hatred the black people have for them, but they created it. Jesse the sheriff views his job as protecting white from the black and the black from themselves and in his opinion this makes him a good person. He is not capable of realizing that this goal of He is creating fear on both sides by trying to separate people into groups and label them as different from each other. If he is protecting colored people from themselves he is preventing them from being who they are and is trying to suppress their culture. The sheriff reminded himself that, “there were still lots of good ** around- he had to remember that.” (Baldwin) (4) He needs to reassure himself that there are still black people who will obey him and not speak out against him and to Jesse an easily manipulated person is “good.” When we discuss animals such as dogs the easiest to train are “good” and the dogs that rebel are seen as “bad.” The sheriff’s view of African Americans is the same outlook we have on animals and his goal is to train them to obey him, instead of viewing every person as an equal. The people singing are not trying to please the white men by following orders, but instead are fighting to be seen as equals. Jesse deeply believes in the idea that one group of people should be feared for the color of their skin. His racist beliefs were developed, because of the lack of exposure to how races other than his own live their lives and express their culture. As a child he did not see an issue with being friends with his friend Otis, there was not a racial border established in his mind yet. The audience is able to see the loss of innocence and a recognition that his race was superior. In the documentary I’m Not Your Negro, James Baldwin explains that while integration allows for more contact and understanding between different races, it does not solve the issue. Racism is born through ignorance and a mindset based on a single story or stereotype.
ReplyDeleteThe story “Going to Meet the Man” is told through the viewpoint of a white man by the name Jesse. The story explains that Jesse wasn’t born a racist, but that is the idea and community he grew up in. It continues by demonstrating how at times the young Jesse questioned what was happening but could never ask because he had no one to ask. He stated, “He did not quite understand what was happening, and he did not know what to ask- he had no one to ask.” James Baldwin further explains how Jesse and his father were able to connect due to the shared racism between them. Jesse does not know why he hates the people of color, but knows that it is something that he has lived with for many years. He considers people of color to be animals rather than humans. This story serves as an example as to how children are not born racist, but how they are taught racism due to their upbringing. (I was not in class so I posted it now)
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