"Many Thousands Gone"

After reading James Baldwin’s essay, “Many Thousands Gone,” I am particularly interested in the idea he asserts of the Negro in America being hidden in the darkness of American society. Baldwin passionately and angrily asserts that the “ story of Negro in America is the story of America,” a story that Americans are not willing to hear; as a result the Negro man and his story are hidden and “he is a series of shadows”

I responded most to the motif of darkness and shadows to depict the way in which the Negro is hidden and separate from American society. “One may say that the Negro in America does not really exist except in the darkness of our minds,” (p.24) is one of Baldwin’s boldest assertions in the essay. He says this in order to illuminate the idea that America is ignorant to a huge group of people and a huge part of our collective American history. Baldwin supports this argument by addressing the “new” generation of “ amazingly well-adjusted young men and women” (p. 27) in America and the disconnect from their “cotton or tobacco field,” (p. 27).

What perhaps infuriates Baldwin the most in this essay is “our dehumanization of the Negro,” (p. 25) because he believes that by that wiping away one group or history it leads to the “ loss of our own identity,” (25). Because of the “darkness” and “shadows” cast by society the Negro in America is stripped of their history and identity thus causing an incomplete American history.

Baldwin believes that this idea of the unidentified Negro American is exemplified in Richard Wright’s character, Bigger in Native Son. As the protagonist of the novel Baldwin sees flaws in the way Bigger’s perspective and voice are practically non-existent. In this way Baldwin’s argument is somewhat relevant in the sense that no matter the minority group or community people still fight against the norm to have their perspectives voiced and heard.