Journal - 10.30.17

This film is used as an expert in the film "I am Not Your Negro". In it and in the essays that James Baldwin has written, he explains the problem with white people. He describes how black people aren't the problem although that's what white people make it seem like. It is white people who are the problem and their way of thinking is incorrect. In one of the letters he wrote, he explains that white people like to conform to society. He says that many may know that their racist thoughts and actions were wrong but they continue to do it to not feel like outcasts from their own group of people. He believes that if a white person acted differently from what the way the were "supposed" to be acting at the time, then they would feel a sense of uncertainty. In this short clip, he talks about the word "nigger". In it, he explains how he doesn't identify as one, but giving that word to black people shows the type of people that white people are. In the film, "I Am Not Your Negro" he explains how this could be a way of showing fear. And though it may seem as fear towards black people, it may be fear of themselves. In the film he also talks about how he sees no difference between black and white people. He gives the example of Crawford (I forget her first name), who was a dancer on tv at the time. Because she was white, he felt odd expressing that he thought she was beautiful. But what seemed to be even more odd for him at the time, was that later that day after seeing her on tv, he went to the grocery store and saw a women in the store that seemed just like Crawford, just as beautiful. What was odd to him, was that she was black. That's when he came to the realization that beauty is not defined by race. It was odd to him because he was going against societal expectations of how to view others. Another issue that he brings about in his work, is not only are white people wrong for having the mindset that they have, but black people are wrong for conforming to what was happening and even believing that they were inferior.
- Susan