by ARCHISHMAN RAJU & MEGHNA CHANDRA
Much attention has gone towards the American writer James Baldwin on the occasion of his centenary this August. This attention is well deserved because Baldwin is possibly the foremost essayist of the 20th century in the English language. However, it is important that we use this occasion to read James Baldwin rather than make assumptions on the nature of his work, and understand why his incisive analysis of American society has particular relevance for our time.
Baldwin’s centenary is being celebrated at a time when the United States is going through an extraordinary political crisis. This is evidenced by the recent student protests, the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, and the arbitrary replacement of the Democratic Party contender for the election. This crisis has been described as a crisis of legitimacy where the American public has lost all faith in its institutions.
Since the United States continues to be the foremost power in the world, the rest of the world is watching and attempting to understand the nature of this crisis and in particular, the extraordinary behaviour of the American ruling elites, who have brought the world very close to another devastating war. It is here that James Baldwin becomes particularly important for his understanding of American society through his sophisticated analysis of the complex nature of white supremacy.
Baldwin and the Mirror of White Supremacy
Baldwin theorizes whiteness as the psychology of empire. While thinkers on the left emphasize the political systems that constitute imperialism, Baldwin revealed the worldview that defined it. He understood whiteness not as skin color, but as a pathology that blinded its victims to reality. This worldview is rooted in a refusal to grow up and take responsibility for the world, choosing instead to pursue materialism and a sense of safety. It is this worldview that is comfortable with war and racism even as it divests the American people of their humanity.
To describe whiteness, Baldwin used the analogy of a mirror, a solipsistic view of reality that allows the beholder to see only what they wish to see. The beholder is terrified of the judgment of the oppressed, but desperately desires their validation. It is for this reason that white America is bewildered that they are not beloved around the world (recall George Bush’s claim that people in the Middle East hate Americans because Americans are free). The white worldview paints the non-Western non-White world as authoritarian and oppressive because it cannot bear to look at the racism of its own society. This is revealed in America’s historical paranoia of Communism, and its current stances towards nations like Russia, Iran and China. The infantilism of the American empire fears what it cannot control, and rather than reaching out with the aim of peace, it projects its insecurities on the darker other.
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