No Name in the Street

Baldwin’s description of his childhood explains his decision to leave home and travel around the world. He emphasizes his troubled relationship with his stepfather, introducing the theme of The Role of Masculinity in the Racial Struggle. As a child, Baldwin feels closer to his mother and paternal grandmother than to his stepfather, whose violent nature he struggles to understand. Racial oppression impacts his stepfather’s mental health, and his rage drives his children away, just as his own family drove him away. Baldwin’s relationship with his stepfather shows how racism influences family relations over generations.

Baldwin and his siblings share a strong bond. In particular, his relationship with his brother who saves him from drowning teaches him “the terror and the loneliness and the depth and the height of love” (8). Despite his strained relationship with his stepfather and the family’s ultimate dissolution, Baldwin still finds love and belonging in his family.

The theme of Love and Hope in the Black Power Era emerges as Baldwin recalls his early participation in the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death was a turning point both for the movement and for Baldwin, who began to question humanity’s ability to transform, as the slow process of social change in America generated a growing discouragement within the Black community. Baldwin emphasizes humanity’s potential, calling people “disasters” and “unprecedented miracles.” For Baldwin, the activism of the civil rights movement was “an act of faith” in the American people (10). King’s assassination was thus a “betrayal.” Baldwin notes that racism still divides the country, and that Americans do not exist as a collective entity. The civil rights movement’s error was believing in such “an entity which, when the chips were down, could not be located” (10). His argument suggests that American identity is exclusively connected to white Americans.

Baldwin refers to his partial rift from the African American community due to his travels and his life as a writer. He expresses guilt for his privilege compared to other Black people. His visit to an old friend in Harlem also reveals the political arguments within the Black community as Baldwin quarrels with his friend about the Vietnam War. Baldwin also registers his disagreement with a certain strand of Black militancy when he criticizes his friend’s daughter’s stance. Baldwin is frustrated by his friend’s lack of engagement with the political events in the country; however, he still expresses his love for him and his family.

Racial oppression leads Baldwin to migrate to Paris, France. The theme of Love and Hope in the Black Power Era is evident as Baldwin refers to his experience of falling in love in Paris. He notes that love is key “to life itself” and that people fall in love with each other regardless of race (22). Love enables people to “accept one’s nakedness” (23); it is a liberating feeling that becomes a crucial element for social change. Baldwin finds a sense of freedom as he discovers that love “liberates you into something of the glory and suffering of the world” (23). The experience of love shows Baldwin how racism works and how it can be combatted.

Baldwin extensively refers to the Algerian immigrants in France, introducing the theme of The Crisis and Demise of Western Culture. Algerians migrated to France during the colonial era and faced racism from the French government before the Algerian War. The conflict erupted in the 1950s and Baldwin witnessed the treatment of Algerians in Paris, drawing comparisons with the segregation of Black people in the United States. Algerians had their own cafés and businesses and did not socialize much with the French. Baldwin also acknowledges the differences between Algerians and Black people in America, as Algerians faced oppression outside their homeland, while Black Americans were oppressed in their own country. Baldwin’s analysis hones in on America and France’s colonial mindset. Algerians in France were subject to discrimination and police violence as they contested the dominance of the French empire. Like white Americans, the French insisted on their imperial mythology and could not make sense of the Algerians’ struggle for independence.

As an American citizen in France, Baldwin realizes the paradox of his own identity. He is treated as a Westerner, but in America he was oppressed like the Algerians. In the years leading up to the Algerian War, racism and police brutality grew, and immigrants in France faced increasing persecution. People Baldwin knew disappeared, many others were imprisoned, and Algerian businesses closed. In the case of Algerians, Baldwin notes the importance of power, instead of justice, as means of self-determination. Ultimately, subjugation of other nations was key to Western history; therefore it lacks moral justification.

Baldwin criticizes the political stance of American liberals during the McCarthy era, emphasizing their limited understanding of America’s racial problem. For Baldwin, liberal intellectuals always guarded themselves against the reality of racism. In Baldwin’s view, debates on McCarthy’s threat to “domestic liberties” only confirms liberals’ willful ignorance of inequality. They themselves were also responsible for the perpetuation of systemic racism and violence.

The theme of Love and Hope in the Black Power Era recurs as Baldwin emphasizes his optimism about humanity. Despite the struggle, he states that: “hope—the hope that we, human beings, can be better than we are—dies hard” (35).