Prejudice In The Fire Next Time By James Baldwin

The Fire Next Time, written by James Baldwin in 1963 during the Civil RIghts movement, criticizes racism within American society and in organized religion as he provides his solutions to end racism. The focus of the essay centers around James Baldwin’s experiences and opinions surrounding prejudice, specifically prejudice in the American public and inside the church. Baldwin seeks to convey different solutions that work to prevent and eventually end racism within these areas based on his personal values. These solutions involve overcoming the fear that lies within oneself and accepting not only other people, but also the self; these solutions are dependent on each individual person willing themselves to change and take action outwardly and

However, he believes that love is difficult to face, more so than fear. For this reason, “love is so desperately sought and so cunningly avoided” and for this reason, people often grow to fear love as ““love takes off the mask that we fear we cannot live without” (Baldwin, 95). Love exposes vulnerabilities that people are afraid to display, however to love one another, people must face this fear. Love, though frightening, can solve the problem of racism. Through fear, white Americans create their own anguish. To conquer their fears Baldwin argues that they must learn to “accept and love themselves and each other” (Baldwin, 22). If a white American cannot love themselves and other white Americans, they can neither accept nor love anyone else, remaining trapped in their own fear eternally. In Jesmyn Ward’s essay in The Fire This Time, “Cracking the Code” (2015), she agrees with Baldwin that acceptance is vital to solving racism. She similarly believes that accepting oneself will lead one to “discover a new type of belonging” (Ward, 7). Together, white Americans must create for themselves a community, and begin to love within that community. Once they have achieved that, they can accept those outside their community. Baldwin states that, like white Americans, black Americans must accept and reciprocate love as well. Baldwin writes to his nephew, who acts as an allegory to all young black men, that if they have not “loved each other” then no black American “would have survived” (Baldwin, 7). Already, black Americans have learned to accept themselves, and have therefore found that love leads to peace. They have not yet, however, learned to love white Americans in the same way. Thus, Baldwin claims black Americans must “accept” white Americans “with love for these innocent people that have no other hope” (Baldwin, 8). Black people must love white