Baldwin
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James Baldwin’s “No Name in the Street” is, once again, another incredible work. This specific work describes his time in France, and his observations of the treatment of Algerians by the French. The French attitude is peculiar. Algerians are described as “les miserables” and are considered lazy. Baldwin uses the examples of cafes, of how they, the Algerians, do not work and instead sit in Arab cafes all day. But why don’t they work? Is it due to the fact that the French system may purposely be limiting the access to work for immigrants? I truly wonder… Furthermore, these Arab cafes are the only places that are affordable and have access to heat, a basic right that "les miserables" do not have in their shared room. As Baldwin claims, they do the same as French students, yet these students are not considered lazy.
An interesting aspect that Baldwin discusses is how the French distinguished him, a Black American, from Arabs. They said that he was a “noir Americain […] évolué”, a civilized Black American. Their criteria for what are “évolué” is based on how “uncivilized” Arabs are. But they aren’t “uncivilized” ... they merely have their own culture, their own distinction from France. They may have been colonized and they may speak the same language, but that does not mean one is lesser than the other.
This is completely random, but I thought it was fun to note that it was also during this time that Baldwin wrote Giovanni’s Room. It is about David; an American man who begins an affair with an Italian man, Giovanni, while his girlfriend is off in Spain. Despite discussing topics like sexuality and internalized homophobia, I think it fits well into what Baldwin describes in “No Name in the Street”, specifically for its brief mention of Algerian men and their attitudes toward women, or as I see it, their "masculinity". In Giovanni's Room, David questions what his role in a gay relationship is. Is he the man or the woman, the dominant or the submissive? In “No Name in the Street”, near the end, Baldwin describes a stereotype of Algerian men being on the prowl in the streets of France to prey on French women. This intense masculinization based on ethnicity is part of this idea of a type of masculine identity. French men are romantic, whereas Arab men are dangerous. Both works highlight how masculinity is defined. In one, it is about gender and sexuality, and in the other, it is based on ethnic background.