James Baldwin Stranger in the Village

Stranger in the Village

In writing that the American vision of the world still tends today to paint moral issues in glaring black-and-white, James Baldwin refers to both America's perception of the American Negro as an inferior race adjunct and its own superiority in the world. It is primarily a cry against racial discrimination.

Black refers to the American Negroes and white refers to white men, the Americans. These Americans were originally discontented Europeans (Baldwin 1955) who came to the New World - which later became the North American continent - and found the Blacks there. These original settlers believed that they were morally destined to conquer this vast and great Continent and, out of necessity, had to reconcile the fact of Black slavery as part of that moral assumption of superiority, conquest and destiny. It has been more than 300 years since at Jamestown and the Negro has remained a slave, wrestling and fighting for his dignity, identity and freedom from his American master.

But far from bringing a source of joy and serenity, the evolution - and reality - of the American Negro is a source of intolerable anxiety to the White. The Black or the American Negro's fight for his humanity, his rights and dignity has burned against the White's security, joy and serenity for several generations. It was a dominant argument that divided the nation. It has been a uniquely excruciating situation that was not meant to be when the first settlers left Europe, where Blacks were not a threat to European identity. The Blacks were abstractions, even non-entities, in Europe. But in America from the earliest times to the present, the American Black slave is an undeniable part of society, and the Whites cannot but form and have an attitude towards him.

That attitude that Whites must form must also blend with the belief on their destiny as a supreme race, the creators of civilization and likewise, civilization's guardians and defenders. Being the elect and privileged race, it is contradictory to accept the Blacks as among them and jeopardize their white status. Therefore, the only recourse is for the White to deny the Blacks' humanity as a reality and other rationalizations, such as lunch law, segregation and legal acceptance, terrorization and concession. The motive of the Whites is to protect his identity, while the Black wants to establish his. But with a moral destiny to back them, Whites interpret what is right or wrong in the world according to color - White is morally right and Black is morally wrong.

The Whites' ultimate agony, however, is that the Blacks are not visitors or strangers in this great nation: Blacks are citizens of America just as much as Whites are: they share the same status despite their color, their hatred, their other differences. Their separation, Baldwin sees, can no longer be bridged, and this vision of the world must finally be accepted as both inaccurate and dangerous and useless to the Whites, because weakens their view and grasp of reality. And those who avoid seeing reality are heading for destruction. Whites must finally contend with that awful reality they have long avoided as inconsistent to their masterful destiny - that Blacks are not abstractions but human beings with dignity and identity like themselves and that these Blacks are inherent to them, their nation and this world.

Baldwin also writes that "morality is based on ideas and all ideas are dangerous." He goes on to explain that ideas are dangerous because they lead to actions, some of which are unpredictable. He writes these lines in connection with the need for men to preserve hope to enable them to rise from difficult situations and to survive. Faith and hope never disappear, even if men fall short of what their convictions. Otherwise, there would be moral standards in the world. But he cautions against fixing everything in the level of ideas, because ideas are amorphous and can take any shape. Ideas can also enslave men instead of freeing them. That is the irony of loyalty to a belief, because men are meant to be free, even from the tyranny of what they believe in.