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Publisher’s write-up:
‘James Baldwin's impassioned
plea to 'end the racial nightmare' in America was a bestseller when it appeared
in 1963, galvanising a nation and giving voice to the emerging civil rights
movement. Told in the form of two intensely personal 'letters', The Fire Next
Time is at once a powerful evocation of Baldwin's early life in Harlem and an
excoriating condemnation of the terrible legacy of racial injustice.’
The Fire Next Time is an essay
written by the American writer and civil rights activist, James Baldwin. The book
comprises two essays, first is a letter written to his teenage nephew – urging
him to broaden his outlook and get away from the chains of what the American
society has conditioned the black Americans to aspire for (mediocrity and not
excellence as he had put it).
The second essay is the majority
of the book, where he explores his experience as a black man growing up in the
US. The book primarily deals with how the author initially tried to take cover
with the help of religion – visiting the local black church and eventually
realising the detrimental effect christianity was causing on the black
community in the US. The author also describes his meeting with Elijah Muhammad
and the Nation of Islam; of which he was soon disillusioned and describes the
movement as merely illogical and merely creating a ‘black god’ to counter the
‘white christian god’.
The book is a short but powerful
text exploring the life of an average black person during the time and also
clearly bringing out the race relations between the segregated communities. He
was often critical of the idea of god, the very idea of the US and its
ancestors who are dubbed as people who fought for peace and ‘freedom’, the
latter being ironic considering how deeply entrenched was the idea of racial
superiority; not to mention that slavery was legal not too long ago.
However, I was not in agreement
with the author justifying violence; whatever be the reason – and to be fair to
him, his arguments were convincing. I must note that he did not directly
endorse violence but at the same time, condemned the glorification of the
‘peaceful negro’ as the white people do not want to imagine any threat to their
property and wealth.
Another observation which is less
to do with the book as such; is that I was uncomfortable with repeatedly seeing
the word ‘negro’; I understand that in the 60s that was a word commonly used in
formal writing as well, but a footnote from the publisher would have helped to
contextualise. I would not be surprised if I quote any line from this book in
the future without this context, some white supremacist claiming the word to
have legitimacy.
The book was insightful and
considering the size of the book, it made us think a lot more about the forms
in which discrimination could take place and how from a position of privilege,
we can easily brand people as ‘criminals’ whereas in a society that
systematically discriminates; there is little incentive to play by the rules.
Given the current situation in the United States, with a president (Donald
Trump, at the time of writing this review) who refuses to unconditionally
condemn white supremacists and kowtows to far right groups, it is important to
make people aware of the struggles people have had to come to the situation we
have today and that the struggle is far from over.
On that note, I would award the
book a rating of eight on ten.
Rating – 8/10
Have a nice day,
Andy
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