The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Title: The Fire Next Time
Author: James Baldwin
Published: 1962
Type: Non-fiction (essays)
Pages: 106
Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, which is the only fact we have. It seems to me that one out to rejoice in the fact of death, ought to decide, indeed, to earn one’s death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life. One is responsible to life: It is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return. One must negotiate this passage as nobly as possible, for the sake of those who are coming after us.
In Brief:
Two powerful essays by Baldwin on racism – depressingly and painfully still resonant today. I don’t feel all qualified to level any critiques against it or do it justice, so just really recommend that you read.
Rating: 4.1
Synopsis:
The Fire Next Time comprises of two essays. The first is a letter to Baldwin’s nephew, marking the hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. He gives James advice – particularly, not to believe what white people might say about him, that he’s anything inferior in any way because of the color of his skin. Baldwin explains how America is structurally set up to oppress Black people, even if most are ignorant of it. He says that it is pointless for his nephew to try and get white people to accept him, and that he must instead be accepting of their confusion and ignorance, help them be better. The only way for the country to change, says Baldwin, is to get whites to understand the terrible history and atrocities committed, to which they are complicit and actively engaged.
No easy feat, Baldwin is the first to admit. In spite of that, he encourages his nephew not to lose heart, writing:
This is your home, my friend, do not be driven from it; great men have done great things here, and will again, and we can make America what America must become.
In the second, longer essay, Baldwin reflects on his own life, particularly growing up as a Black boy in Harlem. He writes about the way many of his friends gravitated towards lives of crime, and his realization that all the criminals he saw in the streets came from the same circumstances he did, that he could easily become one of them. He also realized that the men around him never surpassed their father’s achievements. To avoid this, he turned to the – not the one his father participated in – and refused to leave school even at his father’s insistence.
After years deeply involved in church, Baldwin eventually grows skeptical and realizes that he rejected his father only to embrace a new authority figure. Though he appreciates the guidance of the church and how it helped him avoid riskier paths, he realizes that religion is merely another “gimmick” Black teenagers subscribed to, to help cope with living in a racist society.
Baldwin then turns to examine a different religious group, the Nation of Islam, a Black separatist group. He recounts an experience where he was invited to the leader’s mansion, where members discussed their beliefs that the devil had created white people, who were now ruling the earth for a limited amount of time – soon drawing to a close. Baldwin is skeptical of this belief, finding it as divisive and oppressive as Christianity. Still, he is sympathetic, acknowledging that Black people have no obligation to face their country’s brutal history of racism with any more goodwill than white people have shown.
Still – Baldwin argues that Black people should accept the world as it is, including its history and horrors; should not expect to create a brand new reality, but push for change from what already exists The solution is ultimately love – white Americans have to love the diverse country in which they live and recognize the ugliness that created it. Black Americans have to avoid responding to the hate they face with hate in kind. He closes the essay with some hope, but also issues a grim warning – that if Americans can not come together, the country will burn.
If we—and I mean the relatively conscious whites and the relatively conscious black, who must, like lovers, insist on, or create, the consciousness of others—do not falter in our duty now, we may be able, handful that we are, to end the racial nightmare, and achieve our country, and change the history of the world. If we do not now dare everything, the fulfillment of that prophecy, re-created from the Bible in song by a slave, is upon us: “God gave Noah the rainbow sign, no more water, the fire next time!”
Where I’m At:
Again, we did a terrible job of our research when we chose this book for Book Club – we’re strictly fiction, and this was not (we basically just chose two Baldwin books none of us had read). Oh well.
I read it towards the beginning of June, while the Black Lives Matter protests were erupting across America, including in my city of San Francisco. During that time – which already seems concerningly long ago – there was very little space to think of anything else, rightfully.
I had taken part in the 2015 protests in Berkeley, to some extent, which was the first time I really started thinking about the issues. Before that – I grew up in a pretty secluded, homogenous town. I didn’t understand, at first, why All Lives Matter was bad. I thought of racism as more of an individual issue, police brutality as a “bad apples” problem. I didn’t understand, not really, the ways my skin gave me privilege.
I’m still learning, of course. The recent protests reminded me that the problems in America aren’t solved even when people are no longer taking to the streets. And unpacking all the ways I’m complicit and thrive on the same structures that oppress Black people is an ongoing, difficult process, that also doesn’t end when I finish marching.
Getting Into it:
I’ll keep this section short (especially compared to last time) not because there aren’t a lot of words to say about this book, but because I feel wildly inadequate to say them. I want to focus on Baldwin’s words, which is why I wrote a longer summary. My voice isn’t one that needs to be heard in this moment. My place is to listen, learn, and support where I can. I really encourage you to read Baldwin for yourself.
What I will say is that although this book was written over fifty years ago, it’s still incredibly (snd somewhat depressingly) resonant today. It’s also deeply educational -– I’m ashamed to admit how little I know about the Nation of Islam and other Black movements beyond MLK, what a limited schooling I received and have sought for myself. It also goes without saying that Baldwin’s writing is incredibly powerful and passionate – I read with a sort of breathlessness and ache in my heart. Without ever begging, Baldwin issues a plea. He is frank and direct with his diagnoses, lays out the brutality that Black people face with devastating simplicity that cannot be turned away from. Without ever becoming sappy he defends the power of love, and finds a way to hope even in the bleakest of circumstances. I think that’s something we can all learn from.
