Analysis of “Stranger in the Village”
Part 1.
The black man insists, by whatever means he finds at his disposal, that the white man cease to regard him as an exotic rarity and recognize him as a human being. This is a very charged and difficult moment, for there is a great deal of will power involved in the white man’s naivete. Most people are not naturally reflective any more than they are naturally malicious, and the white man prefers to keep the black man at a certain human remove because it is easier for him thus to preserve his simplicity and avoid being called to account for crimes committed by his forefathers, or his neighbors. He is inescapably aware, nevertheless, that he is in a better position in the world than black men are, nor can he quite put to death the suspicion that he is hated by black men therefore. He does not wish to be hated, neither does he wish to change places, and at this point in his uneasiness he can scarcely avoid having recourse to those legends which white men have created about black men, the most usual effect of which is that the white man finds himself enmeshed, so to speak, in his own language which describes hell, as well as the attributes which lead one to hell, as being as black as night.
What I like most about this paragraph is the way in which it summarizes the pair of dilemmas in which white and black people uneasily coexist. The calm and detached tone in which he talks about this dilemma actually adds to the power of the vitriol that Baldwin reserves for his feelings on this topic. It says to me that both black and white men face each other on a more equal setting, at least in emotional terms, than many other people have been willing to discuss it in the setting. The point that whites have had to use a great deal of will power to keep viewing blacks as exotic rarities is one that has a great deal of resonance. It is a similar impulse to the cultural sort of myopia that allowed Adolf Hitler to build a network of concentration camps throughout Germany and other territories that the Nazis were able to conquer during World War II, and to extract all of the Jews from their places in society, with the goal of imprisoning and eventually killing all of those who were not able to escape in time. It is the same sort of poor vision that allows people with means to drive or walk by homeless people without feeling a twinge of anxiety or sympathy. It is that impulse that tells you from within, “That person is somehow different or less than you are. The choices that he or she has made have led him or her to this point. If I interfere with what is going on, the consequences to me are not going to be pleasant, so I will keep going in the way I am traveling now.”
The most emotionally gripping point in this paragraph is that warring pair of desires within the white man: he does not want to be hated, but he also does not want to change places with the black man. This dichotomy does not admit the possibility of a third way of thinking about this, which would be to start bringing about the type of change that would make hatred unnecessary. Of course, that would require that the white man set aside that knowing naivete that keeps the social situation the way that it is. This is why the hip hop culture has gained so much acceptance among whites, while individual black people have yet to get that same sort of acceptance. The notion of the black person as a source of public entertainment has allowed for a measure of some sort of socioeconomic mobility, but it delays full acceptance in white society. If you think differently, consider the degree to which the NFL has placed the burden squarely on Ray Rice, even though the league was willing to let his situation go away until the media made that impossible.
In general, Baldwin is attempting to create the rhetorical aura of a clinical analysis while stirring up the outrage of the reader. This might seem counterintuitive, as clinical language is generally more likely to produce soporific rather than incendiary effects. However, the outcome is much different, as this come across more along the lines of Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” than a simple clinical overview. The sentences in the essay are long, lending to the expression of some complexity of thought. The purpose is to drain all attempts to build emotional energy out of the piece, letting the content itself carry the power.
The tone, then, is clinical but in a resigned way. Clearly, Baldwin is weary of the way things are, and so he talks about the ongoing, intentional naivete of the white man not with overt anger but instead with a detachment that is more telling than wrath would have been. The detachment suggests that the author has washed his hands of the whole affair.
Part 2.
The issues that keep the white and black communities apart resonate just as profoundly today as they did when Baldwin was writing, and indeed when such Jim Crow absurdities as separate water fountains, separate seating sections on public buses and hotels and restaurants that were only open to white people were in full effect. Although I disagree with much that James Baldwin has to say, I fully endorse his final conclusion that there is too much in the attitudes that whites still have about blacks, by and large, to make full cultural harmony possible. Instead, the continuing segregation that is going on will make for a different sort of peace. The only difference between the segregation of Jim Crow and the segregation of today is that the ostensible point of distinction is economic rather than ethnic. Whites who can afford to do so are, by and large, moving into suburban enclaves that are surrounded by gates. Those who can afford these soaring property values are free to move in, regardless of color, but the values are accelerating to the point where the ethnic lines are becoming just as ingrained in 2014 as they were in 1954. It is no longer as easy for people to claim that racism is the primary factor, because the Jim Crow codes, which were written without any eye for subtlety, are just as dusty and grainy as the images from the National Mall during Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech look to many today.
This point comes across most vividly in the discussion of the “certain human remove” at which the white man prefers to keep the black man. This allows the white man to “preserve his simplicity” more easily, so that he won’t be “called to account for crimes committed by his forefathers, or his neighbors.” The language here is devoid of much in the way of device, because the meaning behind it requires no embellishment in the form of metaphor or hyperbole. In fact, one of the few devices at work is the one at the very close of the paragraph, in which Baldwin asserts that it is the white man’s very own language that “describes hell, as well as the attributes which lead one to hell, as being as black as night.” Instead of using his own simile, Baldwin incorporates similes that whites have developed in order to provide another line of separation between themselves and blackness. The fact that this language has seeped into the cosmogony of the white man is yet another sign that Baldwin’s claims about an intentional naivete are valid. Ultimately, this passage uses nothing more than the white man’s own language, along with some dispassionate analysis, to create an indictment more searing than fiery rhetoric would have been able to render. Although Baldwin fails to address any sort of responsibility that black people may have to right the course of their own lives, I also agree with much of his indictment of the white community. In more modern times, such figures as Bill Cosby have talked about the responsibility that black men have to make life better for themselves and their families. Baldwin largely overlooks this and instead places the blame at the feet of the passively responsible whites. However, the lack of effort from the white community to build bridges is significant as well.
