The Role Of Blackness In The Fire Next Time By James Baldwin

In The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin depicts the relationship of African Americans to the United States-and the society on which it stands-in a way that reinforces this idea: Blackness is defined and problematized by the white society in order to define their identity. This is shown by the inhumane treatment of African Americans since their arrival in this country, the recurring label of criminal thrust upon Black people in their ongoing quest for civil rights, and the psychology of inferiority perpetuated among Black people in their dealings with whites.
Baldwin poses that Blackness determines your circumstances from birth. “This innocent country set you down in a ghetto in which, in fact, it intended that you should perish…. You were born

For example, the label of Black people as criminals. This is not an entirely new label. If we are closely following the law, Black people have been breaking laws for a very long time, possibly since its inception in the United States. However, it is important to note that the law-in its principles of freedom, protection, and equal citizenship for all-has an underlying requirement that Black people would never be able to achieve, which is whiteness. The law was created to serve the creator and oppress the conquered. Baldwin poses that white people have no moral ground on which to stand because of their robbery of Black peoples’ liberty, and that the power that they possess is a criminal power, to be feared but not respected, and most importantly outwitted. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in Letter from the Birmingham Jail, also makes clear why some laws must be broken. “I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.” The law was never made with the freedom Black people in mind, therefore it must be broken in order for any semblance of liberty to be

The themes that are addressed in the novel, including the psychological effects of racism on Black people and the denial of white people to address the issue of race reinforce the idea that psychological inferiority, just like the white and Black identity, are creations that perpetuate a society that will benefit one group and work to the destroy the other. Without the moral consciousness and accountability of the rulers of America’s society, the relationship of African Americans to the United States will continue to be spiritually, psychologically, and physically