All the world needs is love and nakedness
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It’s really interesting to read about Baldwin’s perspective on the situation of Algerians in France. Throughout his analysis of this society, he takes the position of an external narrator in a story but he is very critical about it and it’s eye-opening for the reader. He describes what (racist) Frenchmen say about Algerians for example, them being lazy but he adds a critical observation to it, explaining that it is not about them being lazy but rather, they are not welcomed in that society. He mentions the criticism of (racist) Frenchmen saying they do nothing but gather in Arab Cafés as if they voluntarily segregated and rejected the Frenchmen’s ‘’companionship’’. But rather, firstly, these cafés are their connection with their community, with people who see them as human beings, it’s a place of melancholia. Secondly, it is not like if they were accepted in French cafés or that they could afford it. This little extract from James Baldwin is interesting because we have the perspective of a colored man about the racial dynamics between two groups who could be defined by whiteness, but here, the root of those racial dynamics is the colonial relationship between France and Algeria.
On another note, his reflection about love is really beautiful. Through his experience with love, Baldwin was able to detach himself from the image the white man imposed on him. To make a link with Fanon’s triple gaze, finding love and feeling loved was a way for him to ignore the 2nd gaze and then be able to redefine the 3rd gaze more positively. He was able to see himself as a human being. He beautifully writes about that ‘’ It began to pry open for me the trap of color, for people do not fall in love according to their color…’’ (Baldwin, 1). He also talks about nakedness. The way I understand nakedness in this context is when someone becomes free of the stereotypes, free of racialization, free of negative gazes and becomes an individual with a personality and nakedness becomes about that rather than physicality and appearance. It’s no longer about color or ethnicity or language and differences it’s about human connections, similarities, communication, it’s about the essence, the personality more than the appearance (I think of it similarly to the distinction between batin/zahir in tasawwuf). Baldwin writes that ‘’ nakedness has no color: this can come as news only to those who have never covered, or been covered by, another naked human being.’’ (Baldwin, 2) Again, here I don’t think it’s about the physical dimension of nakedness, it’s about human connections.
What he says about love reminds me of the advice he gave to his nephew in his letter My dungeon shook. In the letter to James, the poet writes that white people need love, and that love should come from colored people. ‘’ … we with love, shall force our brothers to see themselves as they are, to cease fleeing from reality … ‘’ (Baldwin, 10) It’s the idea of the gift of making them notice their whiteness, that we have talked about in a previous class and how destructive whiteness and white supremacy are. This whiteness is responsible for colonialism, racism and all the other problems that come from those dynamics.
Baldwin, James. "My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation." In The Fire Next Time. New York: The Dial Press, 1963. 17–24
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beautifully put