James Baldwin's Notes of a Native Son: Race and Identity

Introduction

James Baldwin published Notes of a Native Son in 1955 at the urging of his friend Sol Stein. The book is a collection of nine essays he had written on the state of what were then called "Negroes" in the United States. In his essays, he examined the interface between his personal life, the social atmosphere of the day, the political movements of the time, and even what was happening in entertainment. The result is a set of essays that give a view of the African American experience in the 1950s that is both broad and deep.

Some of the issues presented in his essays may seem dated given today's racial attitudes, but Baldwin does such a thorough job of providing details and examples that the reader leaves the book with a clear picture of the status of Black Americans, and of race relations, in the decade before the country began to actively work toward true equality for all.

Baldwin on Race in Literature and Film

In several of his essays, Baldwin examines how Black Americans have been portrayed in older literature — such as Uncle Tom's Cabin — and in more modern works, such as Gone with the Wind, The Sound and the Fury, If He Hollers Let Him Go, and Native Son, as well as the film Carmen Jones.

Baldwin approaches this analysis from the perspective of his own Black experience, which included the perception that while being Black carried social disadvantage, having lighter skin was considered preferable to having darker skin. He gave extensive examples of this dynamic from Uncle Tom's Cabin, where many of the most important Black characters were lighter-skinned and used that fact to their advantage. He described Uncle Tom's Cabin as overly sentimental, and identified a significant problem with writing about race in over-sentimental ways: it distances the reader from the people depicted because the emotions portrayed are not authentic. He did recognize that Uncle Tom's Cabin was a product of its time, and connected that observation to racial attitudes in 1950s America. He also acknowledged that sentimentality was not exclusively a racial issue, citing Little Women as an example of similar writing that had nothing to do with race. Thus, while Baldwin's essays reflect the reality of being Black in the 1950s, they also reveal his broader engagement with people of all races — a breadth of experience exemplified by his close friendship with Sol Stein.

Social Life, the Black Press, and Racial Stereotypes

Baldwin notes the great difficulties that arose when Black and White Americans socialized together in the 1950s: White participants were likely to be criticized by other White people, while Black participants would be accused — by other Black people — of being disloyal to their race. He does not condemn these judgments, however. Instead, he catalogs the rich social and cultural world of Black America and reflects it back to the reader as something to be cherished and valued. While that perspective may be taken for granted today, in the 1950s it was a far less common idea, at least among White Americans.

In another essay, Baldwin turns to the neighborhood press in Harlem. At that time, Harlem was run-down, and — as he reports — rents there were higher than in other parts of Manhattan, a condition not generally true today. He complained that Black newspapers emulated White newspapers by focusing on prominent crimes committed by Black people or on society gossip about the Harlem upper class. He also took issue with Ebony magazine, which he felt encouraged a sentimental happiness that implied things would eventually improve on their own. He wryly noted that if that were genuinely true, publications specifically aimed at Black readers would not be necessary — an observation he underscored by pointing to an accompanying photograph of a Black woman carrying a basket of onions from a field. He was frustrated that Black publications perpetuated racial stereotypes about his own community.

Conclusion: Why Notes of a Native Son Still Matters

Notes of a Native Son is a book that should be read by all people of all races, because it has been only about fifty years since Baldwin wrote these words. All Americans need to understand the very real wrongs that the country has attempted to address through civil rights legislation. As a society, we should recognize how easily racism became embedded in American life — and how difficult it has been to begin the work of dismantling it.