Us vs. Them

In Baldwin's Essay "Notes of a Native Son", who is us and who is them becomes convoluted and takes on multiple meaning throughout the essay, sometime multiple meanings at one. When I think of the "us" vs. "them" question I usually think of who the writer is talking about and who they are talking to. Someone if being referred to and someone is recieving that reference. It become clear early on, within the first three paragraphs that the reader is left to their own devices to discern if we are talking about black vs. white, American vs. Negro, or something as complicated as everyone vs. everyone else, including their own feelings of guilt and anger.

Baldwin claims in his very first paragraph, "In our estrangement from him is the depth of our estrangement from ourselves." In this instance I feel like it is fair to claim that we are talking about Americans vs. Negro, although maybe not pitting the two parties against one another as I expected. The cancer metaphor on page 25 is definitely a pointed aim, with a lot of truth at the ways in which the feelings of white Americans toward black Americans comes across. On page 29, Baldwin says, " The making of an American begins at that point when he himself rejects all other ties, any other history, and himself adopts the vesture of his adopted land." This statement is a clear indication that Baldwin isn't letting anyone off the hook, black, white, pink, or anything.

We as the reader never get to see Baldwin's own definition of Negro. He focuses more on what it means to be "American" in America when you are born starting out with strikes against you. Someone in class made the comment addressing the "if it's not white, it ain't right" sentiments that so people of color in America still hear today. Even the origins of the word Negro, the most prominent word in the essay, seem to shift with the time and trends of American culture (see link at bottom of post). "He must, henceforth, accept that image we then gave him of himself." But who controls those trends, the change of culture, our "social arena"? Who gets to participate and who controls who gets to play in the arena without penalty? The American, the negro, or the person who claims both of those identities? I think even beyond that Baldwin is aiming to make us all feel some sort of responsibility for that.

"When the book is examines, its impact does not seem remarkable at all, but becomes, on the contrary, perfectly logical and inevitable." Baldwin quite obviously does not feel that Wright's Native Son properly examines these issues of failing to claim responsibility for the structure of the social arena and further points out that Wright's comparison of the aims of the negro and the worker are not as similar as everyone would like to think that they are.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negro