The Fire Next Time: A Recent Review
“God gave Noah the rainbow sign, No more water, the fire next time!”
James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
Born in Harlem, New York City in 1924, James Baldwin was a literary trailblazer during the modern civil rights movement from his debut novel Go Tell It On The Mountain. Baldwin expressed literary talent at a young age, under the early mentorship of Harlem Renaissance icons like Countee Cullen and Richard Wright. Baldwin came of age in the 1940s at a time when racialized terror was at an all-time high and when Black Americans begin to challenge segregation directly in public facilities, sports, and the military. Baldwin develops an unapologetic approach to tackling American racism and offers polarizing critiques of social movements, religious institutions, and Black Nationalism.
Baldwin’s works have entwined concepts of religion, racism, sexism, and classism to paint a holistic view of life in America from the Black perspective. Notably, Baldwin’s second novel, Giovanni's Room, portrayed depictions of homosexuality in a time when it was a taboo subject. Baldwin himself, a young Pentecostal preacher, addresses themes of social constructionism, religious control, and political identification. Baldwin’s works address the political landscape that makes up the modern civil rights movement and he illuminates the ways that power is constructed within social movements. Baldwin like many other Black leaders in the 1960s, attempts to address: What is life like for Black Americans living in a dominating racialized society? What is the role of religion in American society from both the Black and White perspectives? The Fire Next Time is a novel that encompasses all of these themes as Baldwin releases a public outcry towards white America to show them the overall impacts of white racism on both themselves and the Black community.
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Within The Fire Next Time, Baldwin attempts to formally address what sociologist, W.E.B. Dubois has termed the “problem of the color line.” Baldwin articulates the ways that racism remains systemically embedded within society and that this presents a contradiction to the Christian values that so many white Americans profess. Baldwin begins by articulating the continued exploitation of Black Americans by white racism:
“In any case, white people, who had robbed black people of their liberty and who profited by this theft every hour that they lived, had no moral ground on which to stand. They had the judges, the juries, the shotguns, the law—in a word, power” (25). Baldwin presents a full articulation of the way the color line restricts the autonomy and power of Black America. Baldwin shows the way that the rule of law is a controlling mechanism for maintaining the power of white supremacy within American culture. In a later articulation of the color line, Baldwin uses the newly desegregated military to contrast the treatment of Black soldiers domestically and abroad, “ You must consider what happens to this city, after all, he has endured, when he returns—home: search, in his shoes, for a job, for a place to live; ride, in his skin, on segregated buses; see, with his eyes, the signs saying “White” and “Colored,” and especially the signs that say “White Ladies” and “Colored Women” (49). Baldwin not only tackles the way that racism is systemically present in Jim Crow but also points to the way racialized logic also extends to genderized logic contributing to the objectification of Black women and the purity of white women. Baldwin’s work centrally addresses the way that religion is racialized as he constantly argues that “God is White.” Baldwin articulates the way that Christianity has been sued as a tool of oppression, pacification, and indoctrination for Black Americans. Baldwin articulates that the Bible is a male creation that justifies the enslavement of Black Americans, and for these reasons, he has begun to distance himself from Christianity due to its oppressive nature. Baldwin’s struggles with Christianity are representative of the mindset that many young Black nationalists and the stance that the Nation of Islam (NOI) has taken.
Secondly, Baldwin moves to address the avenues that Black Americans use to tackle American racism from both the perspective of nonviolence and Black Nationalism. There has been a wide range of literature explaining the impacts and relationships between both violent and non-violent methods for fighting for civil rights. Baldwin presents his argument for non-violence, “The real reason that nonviolence is considered to be a virtue in Negroes—I am not speaking now of its racial value, another matter altogether—is that white men do not want their lives, their self-image, or their property threatened” (58). Baldwin presents a strong argument for the way that nonviolence reinforces white ideological systems and prevents Black people from fighting for their needs. Baldwin takes a Black Nationalists stance on violence believing that only violence will be enough for the white power structures to shift. During the late 60s, a plethora of Black leaders were murdered for their roles in advancing Black consciousness and civil rights. The deaths of these individuals and the riots that followed illustrate that Baldwin was right about violence being a moving force in American democracy and that Black Americans would use “the fire next time.”
When addressing the role of violence and militancy in the Black struggle, Baldwin addresses the Black Nationalists' approach that the Nation of Islam has taken towards Black liberation. James Baldwin commends the way that the nation of Islam, specifically Malcolm X, uses the letter X to challenge the linguistics of Black nomenclature and history. Baldwin also does not hesitate to address the shortcomings of the nation of Islam regarding their stance on gender and their demonization of whiteness. Baldwin also critiques the Nation of Islam for its stance on Black capitalism and the way that land ownership and Black autonomy are central to the organization. Baldwin himself does not align with the hatred of white people, but part of him wishes he could be more aligned with the Nation of Islam because of their unapologetic stance on whiteness. The most important thing mentioned about the NOI is their commitment to the education of their people and this for Baldwin is central to combating the power structures in America.
Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time addresses the limits and successes of Black Nationalist organizations like the Nation of Islam; however, Baldwin remains his stance on the dangers of religion in the civil rights movement. Baldwin’s novel opens the doors to critique the elitisms present within the illusions of progress, respectability, and tokenism. He addresses the way that Black equality is incompatible unless white individuals actually relinquish their authority. Baldwin’s works are an authentic and articulate assessment of the ways that Black people fought for civil rights in the modern civil rights era. This novel presents an analysis of the fight for civil rights in the 1960s and articulates that education is essential to the liberation of Black people from poverty. Baldwin centrally articulates that God is a concept that needs interrogating if we are to actually make progress towards our collective freedom.
References
Baldwin, James. Fire next Time. Vintage, 1993.
