Loving the Colonizer
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Baldwin and Martin's papers seemed to address the concept of loving one's colonizer in different lights. They both reminded me of the question posed in class of "what does it mean to love a white person" (or something along those lines). I first read Baldwin's text and found the way he wrote of loving a white person quite beautiful. He painted it in a positive light, saying that falling in love forced him to attempt to deal with himself. He says that lovers do not fight because of their skin color and they do not use their color as a weapon. As lovers, you must accept each others' nakedness which has no color. I think Baldwin means that the state of nakedness that lovers share places them in an equal playing field of vulnerability. And although I want to believe this is true, I do not agree that lovers do not use color as a weapon or do not fight over the color of their skin. I think Baldwin, as a straight Black man who is finding love with White women, can feel at an equal level with a white woman through nakedness. However, I do not think a woman of color can feel equal with a White man because of the way intersectional identities have multiplicative oppressive qualities.
Although optimistic, the issue with Baldwin's view is evident in the male testimonies in Martin's paper. These men are victims of "colonialism in the head." They speak of their draw to White French women, saying that "By
loving me she proves that I am worthy of white love. I am loved
like a white man.” They will never feel French because to be French is to be White. So through their relationships with White women, they are able to get a taste of what it feels like to be the White man. This mindset feeds "colonialism in the head." Baldwin states at the beginning of his essay that he never imagined love a possibility for him. The disease of colonialism had spread so far that he did not perceive himself as an entity deserving of love. So to say when you love, color is insignificant is inaccurate, for the existence of race is what led him to value the lover so much. -
oops Baldwin is a gay man... but my point still stands.