James Baldwin: A Discussion Of Racism In American Culture

In the documentary, James Baldwin states many things about racism in America. One crucial problem that I believe is the most important is the culture in which young black and white kids are raised. In the film, he says that in movies, heroes are always white. The movies do not show black people, or matter of fact, any other race as heroes. If young black and white kids are raised watching those movies, they will start to portray those ideologies in the real life. That only the white man can be the hero and that the black man must be a comic relief.

At the beginning of the film, James Baldwin states that when he watched movies and films, he did not see anyone he could relate to. He states that in fact, he loathed the black characters in movies.

Another factor is that white people, through generations, do not think of black people as human. They do not see a black person as being the same as them. They do not think of themselves as having the same flesh and blood and bones as a black person. Baldwin says, “These people have deluded themselves for so long that they really don’t think I’m human.” Baldwin says that the majority of white people are heedless and unthinking, which I agree with. Most white people, both in the North and South, did not think of other races as being the same as them. They did not care that the people they hated were the same as them. We, no matter the race which you think are, are humans. We are made out of the same things. We share the same ancestors; however, white people during the times of Baldwin, and some to this day in 2023, did and do not see black people as

Why do I think this way? Because of the conduct of the white people, as Baldwin states, “I base this on their conduct, not on what they say,” when he talks about white people deluding themselves for so long that they think black people are not human. As shown by history, white people conquered and colonized many parts of the world, and each in country and part of the world they colonized, they only saw themselves as humans and others as sub-humans. There are many examples of this, look at India, look at the majority of places in Africa which was colonized by white people. Therefore, the roots of racism are deep in the minds of white people. It is highly unlikely that the racism shown by white people will go away any time