The Darkness of Our
Minds
What does
one think when considering the term “darkness”? Is it immorality, a desolate
place, uncertainty, a tainting evil, a curse? In James Baldwin’s essay “Many Thousands Gone” from the 1955 collection Notes of A Native Son he clearly
uses this expression to show his readers the place in which the Negro in
America hides in Americans’ minds. “One may say that the Negro in America does
not really exist except in the darkness of our minds”(p.24-25) leaving the
audience pondering upon this blackness in which Americans conceal the Negro in
America.
James Baldwin makes it clear that
this “darkness of our minds” is not a place of non-thinking but a place where
negative thoughts thrive concerning the Negro in America. “…To think of him is
to think of statistics, slums, rapes, injustices, remote violence….” (p.25)
This is the darkness of the mind he speaks of.
In a sense statistics and some fallacious data gives the American’s dark
minds a type of ammo. In the Wikipedia article, “Criminal Black Man Stereotype”
it states that these negative thoughts can be proven by incarceration and
criminal statistics. Tying into Baldwin’s assertion, “Research on perceptions in the US shows that many people
believe that African-American men engage in violent crimes at the highest rates
of all racial categories, which is reflected by crime statistics.” (Wikipedia;
Criminal Black Man Stereotypes, Perceptions.). This is the social arena in
which the Negro in America plays.
Baldwin goes on to explain the darkness
in which the Negro lingers referring to “the beast” America has created in its
“jungle of statistics”. “In our image of
the Negro breathes the past we deny, not dead but living yet and powerful, the
beast in our jungle of statistics,” (p.28) leading the audience to feel sort of
condemnation in being American and contributing to the beast and negligence to
acknowledge the wretched past in which this beast endured. This condemnation
soon changes to conviction later own in the passage giving American’s a sense
of hopeful redemption to their problematic thinking.
All in all Baldwin’s critique/essay
brought into perspective the negative connation in which American’s hold on to concerning
the Negro in America. Statistics and various data are the fuel to this fire in
the darkness of the American mind. Americans have a part in this darkness as
Baldwin infers. Breaking these stereotypes and proceeding not to believe them
can truly illuminate this darkness.
Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_black_man_stereotype
Dominique,
ReplyDeleteYour discussion of Baldwin's complex use of the term 'darkness' is really compelling, as is your relation of this mental presence to statistics and supposedly "provable" stereotypes. I am curious whether this sense of "darkness" diminishes outside of the social/statistical realm - perhaps in what Baldwin calls "genuine experience."
If the concept of "darkness" is based on stereotypes and statistics, acknowledgement of individual humanity could shift interracial interactions onto the personal rather than the social level. Although Baldwin dismisses a society in which race does not matter as a liberal fantasy impossible in 1950s America, perhaps some degree of hope for social enlightenment exists in genuine experience.
This is a great contribution.