How Americans are made and the "Negro" past

In James Baldwin’s essay, “Many Thousands Gone,” many topics are brought up and discussed about how Americans are made and the history of “Negros”. Baldwin believes that Americans are made at a point when they “reject all other ties, any other history, and himself” (29) to adopt themselves to the land. He says that Americans, in a sense, reinvent themselves to be new and pure. Baldwin believes this a problem that all Americans face and he says it “baffles the immigrant,” (29) this confusion and problem occurs because without the past many people would not be able to know how to describe themselves. The statement of how Americans are made may have been true during the time when Baldwin wrote this essay, but I do not believe this statement would be agreed with by many people today because people have learned to describe themselves through use of hyphenated terms. Today many Americans may combine their ethnicity or race with American, such as African American, Latino American and a variety of other terms. There is still much discussion about the creation of hyphenated terms in America because people still believe it is not such a great thing.

When it comes to talking about the history of the “Negro”, Baldwin goes on to state that “the Negro past was taken from him whether he would or not” (29). I believe this is true because not very many people feel comfortable talking about the past when it comes how African Americans came to be where they are now. It was a touchy topic when Baldwin discussed it in his essay and it will continue to be a touchy topic because as Baldwin mentions, it was a shameful history for “Negros”. Although the history of the “Negro” is not often discussed, with Baldwin’s statement I am sure that even if African Americans wanted to discuss their history, it would have been frowned upon. Throughout the entire essay Baldwin mentions how Americans are often ashamed and would rather look the other way as if the “Negro” past did not occur and all is fine between blacks and whites.  

Baldwin then uses a sarcastic tone when stating, “Shameful, for he was heathen as well as black and would never have discovered the healing blood of Christ had not we braved the jungles to bring him these glad tidings” (29). When Baldwin adds these sentences I feel as if he is mocking the many Americans who think that if it had not been for those “brave” men who went into jungles to capture people and bring them to America as slaves, they would not be here today. Baldwin’s use of sarcasm throughout the essay was helpful to distinguish points where he was more upset.

Here is a link to some discussion on the topic of the creation of hyphenation in America: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AHyphenated_American