Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

 JAMES BALDWIN

James Baldwin, an African American essayist, novelist and playwright, produced a rich psychological African American literature exploring possible escape routes for Black Americans, namely music, Europe and gay sexuality. He was born on August 2, 1924 in Harlem and died on December 1, 1987 in Saint-Paul de Vence, France. His mother divorced his father and remarried the fundamentalist preacher David Baldwin who was very strict with his stepson in a context of great poverty. His stepfather died of tuberculosis late in July 1943 and was buried on James’ nineteenth birthday just before his last sister’s birth. He had three brothers and five sisters, all named in the dedication of Just Above My Head. He expatriated himself in 1948 to France, and lived chiefly in Paris.

He was against the type of apocalyptic religion his stepfather preached. This religious vision comes from the extreme exploitation of Black slaves in America, totally depersonalized at one blow. Blacks (Baldwin systematically uses the word Negro) find their inspiration in the Old Testament, the fate of the Jews in Egypt waiting for Moses to free them. Whites are guilty which cannot be forgiven or forgotten. Judgment Day is close: the bad will be punished, the good will be rewarded. They even seem to identify with Jesus and share his saving mission they think they have to fulfill for their community. Baldwin is critical of fundamentalist preachers and shows their bigotry, hypocrisy and personal ambition, like in The Amen Corner. He mainly considers Christianity but hardly hints at Islam in the USA.

He clearly considers African slaves were entirely deprived of all roots with Africa when turned into slaves at the auction block, and with no possible return. Their sole reference is their American experience forcing them to be sheer copies of what whites want them to be and in mid-20^th century James Baldwin believed whites wanted to be able not to see the color of Blacks who had thus to adopt a life style as visibly white as possible. This invisibility created in the Blacks fear, anger and bitterness explaining their recurring violence at all personal, family, social levels, which for him absolutely justifies racial riots. It ensues that, though they religiously identify with the exiled wandering Jew, in Harlem they hate the Jews who commercially exploit Blacks under the authority of white Gentiles.

Though he writes an extremely rich psychological literature centered on deeply explored Black characters, female or male, positive or negative, his approach of whites is at best schematic. They are unforgivable and hardly redeemable. They have to choose between becoming human or being rejected by history. How they can become human is not clear. The Blacks have no role to play in this highly improbable redemption. Blacks can only escape from this absolute exploitation and alienation.

He explores various routes to a certain amount of personal freedom in a universe of constant alienation. The first route is music, Black music of course, like gospel or jazz. He favors keyboards, piano first, then trumpets, horns and guitars, surprisingly hardly mentioning percussions. This escape route gives to music a transcending dimension. The words of gospels can be taken literally and personally. Christian love becomes real emotional and carnal love for the lover. Gay love becomes a way to evade all norms by reaching out to Jesus and God in the lover, by merging gay love into Christian love. James Baldwin brings everything back to God and Jesus. Blacks cannot escape segregation but they can find a shelter in the temple of music and gay love, in the mental shield of a gospel song of hopeful love or some compassionate blues.

The best way to realize this escape is to move to Europe, though there all Americans are deprived of their family and natural environment. Black Americans are surrounded by vain delusionary white Americans, categorized as Americans, which is no compliment in Europe. Your real personality, not to mention your skin color if you are Black, is never really considered, except with abstract compassion.

James Baldwin represents the Black state of mind in the 1950s and 1960s. He went beyond simply exposing the crimes of white America. He explored the psychology and the escape routes Black Americans can negotiate and construct out of their inescapable racial prison. But he did not see what his characters are suffering from, which was to be later identified as Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, namely the Post Traumatic Slavery Syndrome developed by Dr Joy Degruy, on the Christian side, and Sekou Mims, on the Muslim side. When he died in France the Catholic Church of the USA was just developing, towards American Indians and African Americans, their new policy summarized as “Remember, Reconcile and Recommit.”

It seems James Baldwin’s exile to Europe prevented him from getting involved in the intellectual and social movements being born and developed among the Blacks in America in the second half of the 20^th century.

SEE ALSO

African American Culture and Society; African American Literature, Criticism and Theory; Civil Rights; Gender and Sexuality; Music;

REFERENCES

DeGruy, Dr Joy, PhD, 2005, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing, Portland, Oregon, Joy DeGruy Publications, Inc.

Mims, Sekou MSW, and Higginbottom, Larry MSW and LCSW, and Reid, Omar Psy.D, 2004 Post Traumatic Slavery Disorder, Behavioral Definition for Post Trauma and the African Experience, Dorchester, Massachusetts, Pyramid Builders, Inc.

Baldwin, James, 1954, The Amen Corner, in Hatch, James V., and Shine, Ted, 1974-1996, Black Theater USA, Plays by African Americans, The Recent Period 1935-Today, New York, New York, The Free Press

FURTHER READING

---        1977, Statement of U.S. Catholic Bishops on American Indians, Publication Office, Washington, D.C.

Baldwin, James; 1953, Go Tell It on the Mountain, New York, New york, Alfred A. Knopf

Baldwin, James, 1955, Notes of a Native Son, Boston, Massachusetts, Beacon Press

Baldwin, James, 1964, Blues for Mister Charlie, New York, New York, Vintage International

Baldwin, James, 1979, Just Above My Head, London, England, Michael Joseph, Ltd

# posted by Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU @ 12:42 PM