I Am Not Your Negro
From The Ramparts
Junious
Ricardo Stanton
I Am Not Your Negro
My wife and
I went to see Raoul Peck's documentary I Am Not Your Negro. It was based
upon James Baldwin's writings and life experiences. It uses archival footage of
Baldwin, pictures and footage of American history and Samuel L. Jackson's voice
reading and sharing some of Baldwin 's thoughts
and writings to tell his story. It uses music, the Blues, and popular recordings
to infuse the images with emotion and Baldwin's perspective on racial politics
in America .
It is a powerful film. It helps the viewer realize history and "the past"
are not distant, unrelated, abstract disconnected entities, but an integral, integrated
and omnipresent part of our now. It demonstrates we cannot escape our past and America certainly
cannot nor will never change unless and until we face our demons and make an
honest effort to repent and be better.
The film is
in limited distribution. In fact it is in only two theaters in the whole , tri-state
area. It is not the kind of film the
masses of Americans Black or white will go see. I can readily see why. The
film, like James Baldwin is unnerving, it shatters our illusions and delusions
about race in America .
It is based on an uncompleted book Baldwin was
writing prior to his death.
James Baldwin always made me uncomfortable,
yet he influenced me greatly. He was uncompromising in his assessment of the
American reality. He took no prisoners and didn't give white America any
wiggle room to escape their sins, their duplicity, lies and hypocrisy. His
piercing eyes, his candor and vocabulary made him a champion for Negroes as we
were called in the 1960's when I became familiar with his work.
The film
includes interviews of him on the Dick Cavett television program in the 1960's,
lectures at Cambridge
and archival footage of American history, the history most Americans want to
forget. I Am Not Your Negro weaves
many threads using Baldwin's words, pictures, Hollywood film clips and current
events to tell Baldwin 's story as interpreted
by Raoul Peck, which makes the film extraordinarily powerful. Under Peck's
direction the film examines the impact of three men on Baldwin 's
life, their martyrdom and his relationship with them: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X
and Martin Luther King. Baldwin knew all three
and each had a profound impact on his life because as a writer he was
intimately involved in the struggle against oppression. In the film Baldwin who
was living in Paris as an expatriate determined
to return to America
and become engaged in the struggle because as he said, he could no longer be a
spectator from afar.
But aside
from Baldwin 's personal thoughts, insights and
opinions, the film also reveals the connectivity between the past, slavery,
American apartheid euphemistically called "Jim Crow" and today. Peck
fuses pictures of Ferguson Missouri ,
Trayvon Martin and a host of other Blacks killed by police while using Baldwin 's words to juxtapose his personal defiance and optimism
amidst the carnage and oppression of his day. Near the end of the film Baldwin questions the very need to create niggers and he
says, "I am not a nigger, I'm a man".
But the sad
reality is, the theme of the film is apropos today, which is scary. During the
film the audience sat in rapt attention. There was no talking, no nervous
laughter just focused concentration. Every once in a while you could here
someone murmur, "that's right", or "uh, uh uh". When exiting the
theater I observed hushed tones and expressions on people's faces demonstrating
they were in deep thought. This is what art is supposed to do.
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posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 6:07 AM
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