I'm reminded of this passage in Baldwin's "Notes of a Native Son," written after the death of his stepfather and the Harlem Race Riots of 1943:
“It was necessary to hold on to the things that mattered. The dead man mattered, the new life mattered; blackness and whiteness did not matter; to believe that they did was to acquiesece in one’s own destruction. Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated and this was an immutable law.”
I am a Spanish American white writer living in France. Twelve years ago, I left the USA, actively removing myself from the violent realities of the USA that have plagued any national--let alone human--sense of identity since the beginning. I don't know what the reality of Black Solidarity is in America today; this piece shined some necessary light on it for me. But I do know that the reality of any [insert skin color] Solidarity Movement sounds terrifying to most other "liberals throughout the world, but this is also because the Black American experience is singular when it comes to parsing through the pros and cons of identity politics and finding a voice for the subaltern in a nation founded upon the conflation of innocence and ignorance. TLDR, the USA was founded on the principles of white skin versus all the other skins, and we aren't out of the woods yet, by a long shot. This is why I am still considered "white" to everyone that looks at me, but if I have to check a box on an official form, I am encouraged to check "hispanic" or "latino" because of my last name.
I'm reminded of this passage in Baldwin's "Notes of a Native Son," written after the death of his stepfather and the Harlem Race Riots of 1943:
“It was necessary to hold on to the things that mattered. The dead man mattered, the new life mattered; blackness and whiteness did not matter; to believe that they did was to acquiesece in one’s own destruction. Hatred, which could destroy so much, never failed to destroy the man who hated and this was an immutable law.”
I am a Spanish American white writer living in France. Twelve years ago, I left the USA, actively removing myself from the violent realities of the USA that have plagued any national--let alone human--sense of identity since the beginning. I don't know what the reality of Black Solidarity is in America today; this piece shined some necessary light on it for me. But I do know that the reality of any [insert skin color] Solidarity Movement sounds terrifying to most other "liberals throughout the world, but this is also because the Black American experience is singular when it comes to parsing through the pros and cons of identity politics and finding a voice for the subaltern in a nation founded upon the conflation of innocence and ignorance. TLDR, the USA was founded on the principles of white skin versus all the other skins, and we aren't out of the woods yet, by a long shot. This is why I am still considered "white" to everyone that looks at me, but if I have to check a box on an official form, I am encouraged to check "hispanic" or "latino" because of my last name.
Good riddance. Enjoy France - nice place as far as Euro decadence goes.
Thanks.