Madison Middleton
May 2, 2019
“I Am Not Your Negro” Response
When the rocket took off and suddenly filmmaker Raoul Peck showed us the desolate landscape of Mars, my attention piqued. I wondered why Peck had chosen to launch his movie out of this world. As the camera panned over the sandy red planet, Samuel L. Jackson as the voice of James Baldwin began to speak:
“White people are astounded by Birmingham. Black people aren’t. White people are endlessly demanding to be reassured that Birmingham is really on Mars. They don’t want to believe, still less to act on the belief, that what is happening in Birmingham is happening all over the country.”
Immediately, this moment reminded me of our recent class discussions. After many heated statements about Tony Hoagland’s “The Change,” Professor Cassarino informed us that, in her experience, only her white students were disturbed by the piece. Her students of colour were seemingly less moved by Hoagland’s racially charged speaker. James Baldwin’s words come back to me: “White people are endlessly demanding to be reassured that Birmingham is really on Mars.” By becoming upset with Hoagland’s poem, was I seeking social and personal assurance that my white peers didn’t feel the same way as Hoagland’s speaker? Was I trying to reassure myself that this type of racism didn’t occur within our classroom or in the minds of my white classmates? And why hadn’t Professor Cassarino’s students of colour appeared shocked by this poem? I wondered when watching “I Am Not Your Negro” if the answer was in the frequency of racialized thought. As we discussed today, author Robin DiAngelo remarked on how a person of colour must be present for a situation to appear racialized. In this sense, a black person’s race is always in question or at the forefront of an interaction. Were the black people Baldwin referred to not astounded by Birmingham because they lived that reality every day of their lives? The security of not thinking about race is one of privilege. The security of perceiving racism as far from oneself is one of privilege, too. While Baldwin and his peers lived and fought for their human rights, the country and its president turned its attention to the moon, Mars, and outer space. This most profoundly shows us the privilege afforded in America; Some are forced to eternally think about the colour of their skin, while others can dream of flying to the moon.
In many ways, as the documentary I Am Not Your Negro incorporated film, images, narration, letters, dance, advertisements, this mixed-media piece can be seen as similar to parts the lyric, “Citizen”, by Claudia Rankine as both used numerous mediums to express and critique the racial inequalities and disparities in the nation. The documentary displayed many scenes of African American movements ranging from nonviolent marches led by Martin Luther King Jr., to recent Black Lives Matter protests. The film visually illuminated the parallels between the movements to reveal how even after half a century, the ways in which racial inequalities and prejudices perpetuate and manifest to present day. A stark difference between the movements is the increase in militarization and advancement in technology used as a violent response to protests. The videos and images shown from Black Lives Matter movements illustrate the direct policing of African Americans and with the lens of “Citizen”, Rankine argues that policing is an every day occurrence for people of color in interactions, not solely in response to displayed resistance.
The use of color as well as black and white film in this documentary played a strategic role alongside the narration. In one particular scene, as the narration claims that America is half white and half black, Baldwin stresses that there is a necessity to build the nation together, rather than separate and segregated. In this moment, the black and white film of a social event flashes to becomes shown in color and full of life. The abrupt transition from black and white to color visually represents the hope of working together, and the color and change that comes with that.
Baldwin’s words really highlight the denial of the white perspective. He cites Birmingham as an example of otherness, and a beginning of sorts. Then there is the presence of hate and love within the Civil Rights Movement, especially within the contrast of the King and Malcolm X philosophy. In essence, the documentary highlights the benefits of both approaches to justice, celebrating Baldwin’s admiration for the both of them. Baldwin even suggests that towards the end of the their lives, they were similar in their philosophies. Death in this documentary also carries a heavy weight throughout its unfolding. And although the death of King, Malcolm X, Medgar, and even Baldwin permeate the storyline, the life of their work lives through the energy of their words and the movements that they left behind. It’s no surprise then that the riots and protests that we see today picture the same as those that Baldwin lived through. This artistic choice further emphasizes the parallels of today versus then. The shots of today’s America make Baldwin’s words alive in the modern struggle. The choice of shots in Time Square, rioting elsewhere and beyond makes the Civil Rights Movement still a movement working its way through our culture.
The moment that most impacted me while watching this documentary was seeing early footage of Mars as James Baldwin’s narration talks about how white people “are astounded by Birmingham”. It seems out of the blue, something from Mars. White people cannot accept that racism is everywhere, from Birmingham to Los Angeles. It’s easier to believe Birmingham is something alien to America. It’s easier to believe that it’s an Us vs Them kind of situation, where white people can watch the TV in shock but without the need to do anything because Birmingham isn’t in America, but on Mars. Baldwin believes that this kind of thinking that is one of the obstacles to progress. White Americans cannot accept the fact that they are all the same, that they share ancestors and history and created a country with the black American. The white man is terrified of the idea that he is not pure, that this terrifying “entity in his mind” of the black man, created by his “guilty and constricted white imagination”, is indeed inside of him. This terror is what makes the idea of segregation so popular. With segregation, you don’t have to know what’s happening on the other side, because you don’t want to know. White Americans can live safe on another planet, and “safeguard their purity.” Unfortunately, Baldwin points out, in attempting to safeguard their purity and live on this alien planet, they have become “criminals and monsters.”
“God forgives murder, and he forgives adultery, but He looks down on anyone who supports integration.”
Raoul Peck’s documentarian interpretation of James Baldwin’s undrafted manuscript Remember this House is a beautiful example of how storytelling can often better depict the gross injustices of racism better than any analytical essay on the subject. Within the film, Peck juxtaposes audio from the movie with the film’s general narration. The first, notable example, is the quote above, told by a white woman in a TV interview. The argument itself, that God will forgive certain things that society has grown more accustomed to but cast down what makes society uncomfortable, exists in a new form in the present day; it perhaps has always existed in some manner or the other. Contemporarily, LGBTQ rights come to mind as an example of Christianity being used as a framework for tradition, saying that the institution of marriage belongs solely to a man and woman. In addition, the scene involving the detective and the sheriff spoke out to me alongside Baldwin’s dialogue. It may not be an explicit signal of love, but, as Baldwin puts it, the scene is a symbol of reconciliation.
“It is only sporadically and unwillingly the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
Raoul Peck’s film “I’m not Your Negro,” narrated by James Baldwin’s writing and Samuel L. Jackson’s voice delves into the discrimination and racism Black people have suffered throughout the gestation of the United States. Unlike Claudia Rankine’s Citizen, the film touches on myriad consequential historical events like the Little Rock Nine, particularly Dorothy Brown’s bravery. Fascinatingly, the two works of art appeal to the reader differently, as they distinguish the fine line between sympathy and empathy. Instead of using subjectivity—poetry, visual art, anecdotes—to catalyze its message, “I’m not Your Negro” attempts to tackle racism with objective truths and emphasis of historical events. The film elicits sympathy with visuals of the gut-wrenching cruelties like police violence and citizen-driven hate crimes, while Citizen elicits empathy through second-person narration, placing the reader in the role of the “other” and illustrating what it’s like to be Black in America today. Sadly, James Baldwin’s fervent words that articulate the state of America before 1970 still hold weight today. The discrimination and oppression he writes of are not dissolved and the atrocities Black Americans persevere through everyday resemble the unfairness Baldwin articulates almost fifty years ago. In many ways, Citizen can be seen as a continuation of Baldwin’s message, just in a different medium tackling racism with a different methodology.
Cecilia Needham
May 2, 2019
I Am Not Your Negro Response
In James Baldwin’s words of Raoul Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro, he comments many times about how the fate of America is up to the white man to overcome his fear of his fellow black citizens. Baldwin says we must come to terms with who we are as Americans and the history we carry in order to make any sort of progress towards racial equality and a positive future. He says, “The future of the Negro in this country is entirely as bright or dark as the future of the country…It is entirely up to the American country.” In his explanation of the train movie featured, he says that that the black man does not in fact hate the white man, he just wants him out of him and his children’s way. On the other hand, the white man’s hate for the black man is born out of a terror, but one that exists only in his mind. More than the simple terror of the “danger” black people pose, the terror of relinquishing power is all the more present here. Baldwin says that the world may not be white because “white is simply a word for describing power”. Thus, the rights of black people threaten the very whiteness that holds the American societal structure together, even today. Whiteness is contingent on the oppression non-whiteness, and Baldwin says we must come to terms with this reality in order to challenge it and see a better tomorrow for our country.
I Am Not Your Negro is a film riddled with numerous instances of different types of racial interaction and perspective. There were two parts of the movie to me that were particularly striking. The first comes around the 44th minute, in a soliloquy in which Baldwin says “It is not a racial problem. It’s a problem of whether or not you’re willing to look at your life and be responsible for it, and then begin to change it.” I really was intrigued by this line of thought, which I believe was intended to extract the issue of race into a more human issue of empathy and self-reflection. Baldwin’s ideas express the way in which the issue of race is self-preserving: in viewing race as a defining factor in the argument of equality and human rights, the existence of race as a human made construct is perpetuated. The second scene that I found most striking occurs at 59:50. In this scene, a cinematic transition is made between black and white and color. In the black and white portion (prior to the transition), a speech is being given by Baldwin. At the time listed above, his speech concludes, and the applause begins. It is at this point when the scene switches to color imagery. I felt as though this cinematic decision by Peck was made with the implication that it stood for a greater example of black and white interaction. When a minority member of society is speaking or acting, they are in control, yet they are under the speculation of white culture, and white society therefore is in control of the reaction.
Raoul Peck brings James Baldwin’s emotion, passion, and charisma back to life, as Peck uses the messages and narration of one of the most influential figures of the Civil Rights movements, in order to frame racism America as a story of of past and our present. Through Peck’s choice to only use James Baldwin’s voice, he frames the film within the the Civil Rights Movement, yet the way his narration transcends into present day footage of police brutality forces a stark realization upon the viewer: racism, whether implicit or explicit, is still a pressing civic issue, upon which every citizen is responsible to respond. In an interview with Peck on the Hollywood Reporter, he described how he chose to only use the word’s of James Baldwin because he wanted the viewer to think through Baldwin’s framework. Rather than using expert opinions, Peck used the voice of a deceased man who was influential in the mid-20th century, which makes the relevancy of his words in today’s society even more horrifying.
Unlike textbooks and classes in high school regarding racism, this film was directed by a Haitian man and is portrayed through the perspective of an influential black activist instead of being taught by a white guy in a book written by white guys. This new perspective reframed my understanding, and the potency of Baldwin’s words when mirrored with images such as police brutality and Trayvon Martin’s murder was eloquently terrible. Baldwin died before the age of social media in which everything can be recorded, and finally people can understand and witness the oppressive brutality against African Americans. Even so, much of the time, these brutalized, often murdered victims get no justice, and police walk away with their jobs. Though Baldwin’s words are astoundingly relevant in today’s society, I wonder activists such as he, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X would be saying in modern America. How would they try to combat an “equal” America that is still ingrained in marginalizing systematic racism?
I Am Not Your Negro Response
William Blastos
Literary Borders
Cassarino
I Am Not Your Negro is an emotionally engaging film that, through the voice of James Baldwin, chronicles and documents the fight for racial equality in the US from a uniquely black perspective. Having spent most of my life in Connecticut, New Jersey, and Maine my education surrounding the fight for racial equality came from white teachers and old textbooks written by white authors. I never was shown the black perspective of these movements, movements that were started by black activists. I think what makes this film uniquely powerful is that it is told from an exclusively black perspective. The white people in this film are portrayed as the others, and it is the black activists who fought against racial injustice that are telling the story of their own fight. However, the film transcends the boundaries of a film about the civil right movement or about police brutality in that is spans both. From Uncle Tom’s Cabin to the murders of Trayvon Martin, I Am Not Your Negro explores much of the history of the fight against racial injustices through the eyes of an observer and participant in this fight.
I think the facet of this film that was most striking to see was the imagery of violence against black people at the hands of police and white civilians alike, as well as the violently hateful rhetoric that appeared in graffiti and on the posters of protesters. The clips of the aftermath of lynchings are the most haunting. This is yet another way this film is unique. History books have not recorded the evil and violent treatment of people of color in American history, and Peck puts these ugly pieces of American history into a modern context. These events are not fully behind us, and their portrayal serves as a reminder that there is still work to be done. I Am Not Your Negro is a sobering account of racial inequality from its origins through its place in modern times.
Around 18:17, there is a shot of a car window with a small crack in it as the windshield wipers brush away the rain. The crack could represent what Baldwin mentions: black people seeing white society, so close to as to be able to crack the race barrier, but realizing that a black citizen can’t quite make the push into equal rights. One quote describes how white society never quite wants to look into the window to realize the unequal difference, hoping instead for blissful ignorance. “White people are endlessly demanding to be reassured that Birmingham is really on Mars…They don’t want to believe still, less to act on the belief, that what is happening in Birmingham is happening all over the country.” Only after years of struggle, of in the face images and speeches and demonstrations did anything change, and yet the images in I Am Not Your Negro flash between civil rights era and current day footage. Claudia Rankine’s Citizen speaks to the still prevalent but more easy to ignore discrimination in the twenty-first century. White people still want to laugh off and forget what should be so clear, and the pushback that many black artists receive for their art pieces that are interpreted as always being about injustice paints a dirty picture of the change still needed long after the deaths of the three leaders presented in the film.
Madison Middleton
May 2, 2019
“I Am Not Your Negro” Response
When the rocket took off and suddenly filmmaker Raoul Peck showed us the desolate landscape of Mars, my attention piqued. I wondered why Peck had chosen to launch his movie out of this world. As the camera panned over the sandy red planet, Samuel L. Jackson as the voice of James Baldwin began to speak:
“White people are astounded by Birmingham. Black people aren’t. White people are endlessly demanding to be reassured that Birmingham is really on Mars. They don’t want to believe, still less to act on the belief, that what is happening in Birmingham is happening all over the country.”
Immediately, this moment reminded me of our recent class discussions. After many heated statements about Tony Hoagland’s “The Change,” Professor Cassarino informed us that, in her experience, only her white students were disturbed by the piece. Her students of colour were seemingly less moved by Hoagland’s racially charged speaker. James Baldwin’s words come back to me: “White people are endlessly demanding to be reassured that Birmingham is really on Mars.” By becoming upset with Hoagland’s poem, was I seeking social and personal assurance that my white peers didn’t feel the same way as Hoagland’s speaker? Was I trying to reassure myself that this type of racism didn’t occur within our classroom or in the minds of my white classmates? And why hadn’t Professor Cassarino’s students of colour appeared shocked by this poem? I wondered when watching “I Am Not Your Negro” if the answer was in the frequency of racialized thought. As we discussed today, author Robin DiAngelo remarked on how a person of colour must be present for a situation to appear racialized. In this sense, a black person’s race is always in question or at the forefront of an interaction. Were the black people Baldwin referred to not astounded by Birmingham because they lived that reality every day of their lives? The security of not thinking about race is one of privilege. The security of perceiving racism as far from oneself is one of privilege, too. While Baldwin and his peers lived and fought for their human rights, the country and its president turned its attention to the moon, Mars, and outer space. This most profoundly shows us the privilege afforded in America; Some are forced to eternally think about the colour of their skin, while others can dream of flying to the moon.
In many ways, as the documentary I Am Not Your Negro incorporated film, images, narration, letters, dance, advertisements, this mixed-media piece can be seen as similar to parts the lyric, “Citizen”, by Claudia Rankine as both used numerous mediums to express and critique the racial inequalities and disparities in the nation. The documentary displayed many scenes of African American movements ranging from nonviolent marches led by Martin Luther King Jr., to recent Black Lives Matter protests. The film visually illuminated the parallels between the movements to reveal how even after half a century, the ways in which racial inequalities and prejudices perpetuate and manifest to present day. A stark difference between the movements is the increase in militarization and advancement in technology used as a violent response to protests. The videos and images shown from Black Lives Matter movements illustrate the direct policing of African Americans and with the lens of “Citizen”, Rankine argues that policing is an every day occurrence for people of color in interactions, not solely in response to displayed resistance.
The use of color as well as black and white film in this documentary played a strategic role alongside the narration. In one particular scene, as the narration claims that America is half white and half black, Baldwin stresses that there is a necessity to build the nation together, rather than separate and segregated. In this moment, the black and white film of a social event flashes to becomes shown in color and full of life. The abrupt transition from black and white to color visually represents the hope of working together, and the color and change that comes with that.
Baldwin’s words really highlight the denial of the white perspective. He cites Birmingham as an example of otherness, and a beginning of sorts. Then there is the presence of hate and love within the Civil Rights Movement, especially within the contrast of the King and Malcolm X philosophy. In essence, the documentary highlights the benefits of both approaches to justice, celebrating Baldwin’s admiration for the both of them. Baldwin even suggests that towards the end of the their lives, they were similar in their philosophies. Death in this documentary also carries a heavy weight throughout its unfolding. And although the death of King, Malcolm X, Medgar, and even Baldwin permeate the storyline, the life of their work lives through the energy of their words and the movements that they left behind. It’s no surprise then that the riots and protests that we see today picture the same as those that Baldwin lived through. This artistic choice further emphasizes the parallels of today versus then. The shots of today’s America make Baldwin’s words alive in the modern struggle. The choice of shots in Time Square, rioting elsewhere and beyond makes the Civil Rights Movement still a movement working its way through our culture.
The moment that most impacted me while watching this documentary was seeing early footage of Mars as James Baldwin’s narration talks about how white people “are astounded by Birmingham”. It seems out of the blue, something from Mars. White people cannot accept that racism is everywhere, from Birmingham to Los Angeles. It’s easier to believe Birmingham is something alien to America. It’s easier to believe that it’s an Us vs Them kind of situation, where white people can watch the TV in shock but without the need to do anything because Birmingham isn’t in America, but on Mars. Baldwin believes that this kind of thinking that is one of the obstacles to progress. White Americans cannot accept the fact that they are all the same, that they share ancestors and history and created a country with the black American. The white man is terrified of the idea that he is not pure, that this terrifying “entity in his mind” of the black man, created by his “guilty and constricted white imagination”, is indeed inside of him. This terror is what makes the idea of segregation so popular. With segregation, you don’t have to know what’s happening on the other side, because you don’t want to know. White Americans can live safe on another planet, and “safeguard their purity.” Unfortunately, Baldwin points out, in attempting to safeguard their purity and live on this alien planet, they have become “criminals and monsters.”
Zack Maluccio
Literary Borders
5/2/19
“God forgives murder, and he forgives adultery, but He looks down on anyone who supports integration.”
Raoul Peck’s documentarian interpretation of James Baldwin’s undrafted manuscript Remember this House is a beautiful example of how storytelling can often better depict the gross injustices of racism better than any analytical essay on the subject. Within the film, Peck juxtaposes audio from the movie with the film’s general narration. The first, notable example, is the quote above, told by a white woman in a TV interview. The argument itself, that God will forgive certain things that society has grown more accustomed to but cast down what makes society uncomfortable, exists in a new form in the present day; it perhaps has always existed in some manner or the other. Contemporarily, LGBTQ rights come to mind as an example of Christianity being used as a framework for tradition, saying that the institution of marriage belongs solely to a man and woman. In addition, the scene involving the detective and the sheriff spoke out to me alongside Baldwin’s dialogue. It may not be an explicit signal of love, but, as Baldwin puts it, the scene is a symbol of reconciliation.
Augie Schultz
Prof. Cassarino
5/1/19
“It is only sporadically and unwillingly the land of the free and the home of the brave.”
Raoul Peck’s film “I’m not Your Negro,” narrated by James Baldwin’s writing and Samuel L. Jackson’s voice delves into the discrimination and racism Black people have suffered throughout the gestation of the United States. Unlike Claudia Rankine’s Citizen, the film touches on myriad consequential historical events like the Little Rock Nine, particularly Dorothy Brown’s bravery. Fascinatingly, the two works of art appeal to the reader differently, as they distinguish the fine line between sympathy and empathy. Instead of using subjectivity—poetry, visual art, anecdotes—to catalyze its message, “I’m not Your Negro” attempts to tackle racism with objective truths and emphasis of historical events. The film elicits sympathy with visuals of the gut-wrenching cruelties like police violence and citizen-driven hate crimes, while Citizen elicits empathy through second-person narration, placing the reader in the role of the “other” and illustrating what it’s like to be Black in America today. Sadly, James Baldwin’s fervent words that articulate the state of America before 1970 still hold weight today. The discrimination and oppression he writes of are not dissolved and the atrocities Black Americans persevere through everyday resemble the unfairness Baldwin articulates almost fifty years ago. In many ways, Citizen can be seen as a continuation of Baldwin’s message, just in a different medium tackling racism with a different methodology.
Cecilia Needham
May 2, 2019
I Am Not Your Negro Response
In James Baldwin’s words of Raoul Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro, he comments many times about how the fate of America is up to the white man to overcome his fear of his fellow black citizens. Baldwin says we must come to terms with who we are as Americans and the history we carry in order to make any sort of progress towards racial equality and a positive future. He says, “The future of the Negro in this country is entirely as bright or dark as the future of the country…It is entirely up to the American country.” In his explanation of the train movie featured, he says that that the black man does not in fact hate the white man, he just wants him out of him and his children’s way. On the other hand, the white man’s hate for the black man is born out of a terror, but one that exists only in his mind. More than the simple terror of the “danger” black people pose, the terror of relinquishing power is all the more present here. Baldwin says that the world may not be white because “white is simply a word for describing power”. Thus, the rights of black people threaten the very whiteness that holds the American societal structure together, even today. Whiteness is contingent on the oppression non-whiteness, and Baldwin says we must come to terms with this reality in order to challenge it and see a better tomorrow for our country.
I Am Not Your Negro is a film riddled with numerous instances of different types of racial interaction and perspective. There were two parts of the movie to me that were particularly striking. The first comes around the 44th minute, in a soliloquy in which Baldwin says “It is not a racial problem. It’s a problem of whether or not you’re willing to look at your life and be responsible for it, and then begin to change it.” I really was intrigued by this line of thought, which I believe was intended to extract the issue of race into a more human issue of empathy and self-reflection. Baldwin’s ideas express the way in which the issue of race is self-preserving: in viewing race as a defining factor in the argument of equality and human rights, the existence of race as a human made construct is perpetuated. The second scene that I found most striking occurs at 59:50. In this scene, a cinematic transition is made between black and white and color. In the black and white portion (prior to the transition), a speech is being given by Baldwin. At the time listed above, his speech concludes, and the applause begins. It is at this point when the scene switches to color imagery. I felt as though this cinematic decision by Peck was made with the implication that it stood for a greater example of black and white interaction. When a minority member of society is speaking or acting, they are in control, yet they are under the speculation of white culture, and white society therefore is in control of the reaction.
Raoul Peck brings James Baldwin’s emotion, passion, and charisma back to life, as Peck uses the messages and narration of one of the most influential figures of the Civil Rights movements, in order to frame racism America as a story of of past and our present. Through Peck’s choice to only use James Baldwin’s voice, he frames the film within the the Civil Rights Movement, yet the way his narration transcends into present day footage of police brutality forces a stark realization upon the viewer: racism, whether implicit or explicit, is still a pressing civic issue, upon which every citizen is responsible to respond. In an interview with Peck on the Hollywood Reporter, he described how he chose to only use the word’s of James Baldwin because he wanted the viewer to think through Baldwin’s framework. Rather than using expert opinions, Peck used the voice of a deceased man who was influential in the mid-20th century, which makes the relevancy of his words in today’s society even more horrifying.
Unlike textbooks and classes in high school regarding racism, this film was directed by a Haitian man and is portrayed through the perspective of an influential black activist instead of being taught by a white guy in a book written by white guys. This new perspective reframed my understanding, and the potency of Baldwin’s words when mirrored with images such as police brutality and Trayvon Martin’s murder was eloquently terrible. Baldwin died before the age of social media in which everything can be recorded, and finally people can understand and witness the oppressive brutality against African Americans. Even so, much of the time, these brutalized, often murdered victims get no justice, and police walk away with their jobs. Though Baldwin’s words are astoundingly relevant in today’s society, I wonder activists such as he, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X would be saying in modern America. How would they try to combat an “equal” America that is still ingrained in marginalizing systematic racism?
I Am Not Your Negro Response
William Blastos
Literary Borders
Cassarino
I Am Not Your Negro is an emotionally engaging film that, through the voice of James Baldwin, chronicles and documents the fight for racial equality in the US from a uniquely black perspective. Having spent most of my life in Connecticut, New Jersey, and Maine my education surrounding the fight for racial equality came from white teachers and old textbooks written by white authors. I never was shown the black perspective of these movements, movements that were started by black activists. I think what makes this film uniquely powerful is that it is told from an exclusively black perspective. The white people in this film are portrayed as the others, and it is the black activists who fought against racial injustice that are telling the story of their own fight. However, the film transcends the boundaries of a film about the civil right movement or about police brutality in that is spans both. From Uncle Tom’s Cabin to the murders of Trayvon Martin, I Am Not Your Negro explores much of the history of the fight against racial injustices through the eyes of an observer and participant in this fight.
I think the facet of this film that was most striking to see was the imagery of violence against black people at the hands of police and white civilians alike, as well as the violently hateful rhetoric that appeared in graffiti and on the posters of protesters. The clips of the aftermath of lynchings are the most haunting. This is yet another way this film is unique. History books have not recorded the evil and violent treatment of people of color in American history, and Peck puts these ugly pieces of American history into a modern context. These events are not fully behind us, and their portrayal serves as a reminder that there is still work to be done. I Am Not Your Negro is a sobering account of racial inequality from its origins through its place in modern times.
Around 18:17, there is a shot of a car window with a small crack in it as the windshield wipers brush away the rain. The crack could represent what Baldwin mentions: black people seeing white society, so close to as to be able to crack the race barrier, but realizing that a black citizen can’t quite make the push into equal rights. One quote describes how white society never quite wants to look into the window to realize the unequal difference, hoping instead for blissful ignorance. “White people are endlessly demanding to be reassured that Birmingham is really on Mars…They don’t want to believe still, less to act on the belief, that what is happening in Birmingham is happening all over the country.” Only after years of struggle, of in the face images and speeches and demonstrations did anything change, and yet the images in I Am Not Your Negro flash between civil rights era and current day footage. Claudia Rankine’s Citizen speaks to the still prevalent but more easy to ignore discrimination in the twenty-first century. White people still want to laugh off and forget what should be so clear, and the pushback that many black artists receive for their art pieces that are interpreted as always being about injustice paints a dirty picture of the change still needed long after the deaths of the three leaders presented in the film.