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J.L. Sutton's Reviews > The Fire Next Time
The Fire Next Time
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“And if the word integration means anything, this is what it means: that we, with love, shall force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality and begin to change it."
Written during the battle for Civil Rights in the early 60s, Baldwin's impassioned call to action in The Fire Next Time is unmistakable. Racism in America has had a devastating effect on African Americans and White Americans. Baldwin challenges us to see past the signs (Colored and White) which divide us. Accepting the artificial barriers of segregation may not be wicked, but denying our fellow citizens dignity is both racist and most assuredly spineless. Baldwin claims people cling to their hatred and bigotry because hate gives them a purpose as well as an identity. It allows them to deflect the pain of their own lives. However, such thinking traps them in a history or story which doesn't make sense and further detaches them from reality. States Baldwin, "They are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand, and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it." Baldwin's words are still powerful. Still relevant!
Written during the battle for Civil Rights in the early 60s, Baldwin's impassioned call to action in The Fire Next Time is unmistakable. Racism in America has had a devastating effect on African Americans and White Americans. Baldwin challenges us to see past the signs (Colored and White) which divide us. Accepting the artificial barriers of segregation may not be wicked, but denying our fellow citizens dignity is both racist and most assuredly spineless. Baldwin claims people cling to their hatred and bigotry because hate gives them a purpose as well as an identity. It allows them to deflect the pain of their own lives. However, such thinking traps them in a history or story which doesn't make sense and further detaches them from reality. States Baldwin, "They are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand, and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it." Baldwin's words are still powerful. Still relevant!
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Reading Progress
February 24, 2018
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Started Reading
February 25, 2018
– Shelved
February 25, 2018
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Finished Reading
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Jo
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Feb 25, 2018 01:47PM
Great review J.L. I'm currently reading Black Boy by Richard Wright which has an equally devastating portrait of racism in America. I'll add this one to be read!
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Glad that you like Baldwin.:) His writing is so impressive! Saddly, I've just read some of his essays. But 'The fire next time' is on my to-read list.;)
I've now read The Fire Next Time and Notes of a Native Son. Should place Go Tell It on the Mountain on my to read list. Baldwin is always impressive and insightful!
Another Country is my favorite of his, you should check that one out too! You can't go wrong reading Baldwin, everything he wrote is brilliant.
J.L., It is good to be reminded of this book & of its author as well. Baldwin was indeed a gifted writer & he felt himself a perennial outsider, ostracized in America because of his black skin & very often within his own family & the black community because he was openly gay. For those of us who thought that the landslide elections of Barack Obama had somehow changed race relations in America, we have been proven misguided, though indeed things are not as dire as they were before the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s & thereafter. Bill
