February 22

I am Not Your Negro – review and extra credit

“There are days — this is one of them — when you wonder what your role is in this country and what your future is in it.” – James Baldwin, 1963.

This film, I am Not Your Negro, directed by Raoul Peck, is a testament to James Baldwin’s brilliance.  It in one fell swoop places him within the context of the Civil Rights Movement and also as someone who was a latecomer to its activism (though he fought racism through his words while living in France).  He was one of America’s leading intellectuals and social critics and found a way to cut through the baloney, the white ignorance of the time, the cluelessness, like a knife.  At once, the film is a unique history of the CRM, of the past sixty years of race, and also it’s a warning for us today that we still have racial problems left festering.

To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.”

The film’s narrative is loosely based upon Baldwin’s attempt to write a history of the CRM using his friends, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Dr. King, as touchstones.  Apparently, Baldwin only got as far as 30 pages of notes before he gave up on the project in 1979.  What shocked me (though I knew this fact in the back of my mind, being a history teacher) was the fact that all three men were killed before they hit the age of 40.  As someone who is almost 50, I am both in awe and in shock of how much these three men had accomplished in such a short span.

The film begins with Baldwin’s appearance on The Dick Cavett Show in 1968 as the host earnestly implores Baldwin as to where there might be a glimmer of hope in race relations.  Baldwin smiles that toothy grin and kind of shakes his head as if to say he doesn’t know.  But he does.  What Dick Cavett asked him is probably indicative of what other white people have asked themselves during and since the CRM – when will Black people be satisfied with the advances that their race has made?   When Cavett brings an older, white professor of philosophy to come on, all he does is whitesplain the problem of race in America to Baldwin.  Below is Baldwin’s response:

At an interview with Attorney General Robert Kennedy in 1963, James Baldwin and playwright Lorraine Hansberry (among others) were gathered together to discuss improving race relations, a “quiet, off-the-record, unpublicized get-together of prominent Negroes”.  JFK was still thinking about 1964 and running again, so he couldn’t look like he was kowtowing to Black people for fear of losing the Southern vote, yet he still had to appear to be leader of ALL Americans. The meeting took place in late May, soon after the film footage of the Children’s Crusade was broadcast to the nation – blasting Black children with water from fire hoses and attacking protestors with dogs.  This meeting, though just briefly mentioned in the film, seems like a typical Kennedy maneuver where the Kennedys do something on the surface but don’t seem to understand the deeper, underlying causes.  The actors and activists at the meeting were told by Robert Kennedy that maybe in forty years there might be a Black president.  Baldwin’s answer, two years later in a debate with William F. Buckley, conservative critic, is telling:

“From the point of view of the man in the Harlem barber shop, Bobby Kennedy only got here yesterday and now he is already on his way to the Presidency… We were here for 400 years and now he tells us that maybe in 40 years, if you are good, we may let you become President.” – 1965

It reminds me of something that I had heard once that, when asked, how many more women did Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg feel need to be on the court in order to make women feel equal?  Her answer was nine, with the rationale that the Supreme Court had been all male for 190 years, it’s time to make up some ground.  In the same respect, maybe we need a string of minority presidents of women and people of color to help make America more equal.

“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

There was a telling scene, a powerful scene, when Baldwin was talking about growing up in Harlem and watching his friends die way too early.  Then, the film cuts to snapshots of modern young Black Americans, all cut down before their 18th birthday, like Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice, and ends with someone holding up a sign that says “We Live in a Police State” or something to that effect.  There are shots of the Ferguson disturbances interspersed with shots of white police officers clubbing Black people on the streets of Oakland, California and Birmingham, Alabama, ramming home the message that though we whites might think this awful string of police brutality is relatively new in America, it’s not.  Now, more things are just being caught on video than ever before.

“I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.” 

Baldwin’s social critiques of the nation in the film are just as prescient as they were fifty years ago, maybe even more so.  Because the film is so dense, with layers of meaning and visuals and voice overs going on all at the same time, I feel like I would need to see this film two or three more times to get the entire message.  But one scene struck me, as Baldwin decries the vacuousness of American life, about how that once we discover how pointless life is with an accumulation of stuff, we’ll go crazy.  As he says this (with narration by Samuel L. Jackson), there is some colorful movie with white people dancing all around, and then he cuts to a scene from Gus Van Zant’s 2003 film, Elephant, about a Columbine-like school shooting.

“I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”

One of the things that Baldwin stresses the most, where I think he is most consistently portrayed in the film, is his undying belief that it is our humanity that ties us all together.  Peck, the filmaker does an excellent job of contrasting how two different groups of people can see the same thing and view it differently, so I am certain that my film review would be markedly different than a Black film critic (I’m not calling myself a critic, I just love movies).  And it is this underlying humanity and how we figure out who we are in America is what seems to fascinate Baldwin the most.  This humanity is what ties us together, and because of it, we are inextricably woven as a fabric in one piece in American history. To separate the strands between white, black, brown, red, yellow, is to render the fabric useless.

For extra credit, see the film and answer three of the questions below (you must answer #2 as one of the three): 

  1. How did films shape how James saw the world when he was younger?  Also, how are films, especially ones with the great actor Sidney Poitier, used?
  2. How does this film act as a history of the Civil Rights Movement from 1955 – 1968?  How is it not a history but yet the story of James Baldwin?
  3.  One of the things that the film brings up is how white and black people see things differently, specifically using the pivotal scene in the movie, The Defiant Ones.  How do you think your perception of this film is different than somebody of another color?  Why?
  4. “The story of the Negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story.”  Explain whether or not you agree with this quote and why.

Blog is due by Friday night, March 10.  350 words minimum.  

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Posted February 22, 2017 by geoffwickersham in category Video / podcasts

18 thoughts on “I am Not Your Negro – review and extra credit

  1. Rania Abbasi

    2. In I Am Not Your Negro, James Baldwin gives us the history of the Civil Rights Movement by telling it through three of his friends, and great Civil Rights leaders; Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evers, and Malcolm X. Baldwin says in the film that he’s chosen these three men and wants their lives to bang against each other to tell an undeniably honest story. We get glimpses into the lives of these three men and their relationship to James Baldwin. We also see the difference between their activism/protest (i.e. Martin’s peace versus Malcolm’s black muslim–and sometimes violent–activism). Director Raoul Peck also includes clips of protesters, both for and against the rights of black people, and other clips/pictures of black activism (such as the bus boycotts). This takes us deep into the personal level of the Civil Rights Movement, where we can humanize and put faces to the people and groups we learn about in the history books. I Am Not Your Negro also becomes the story of James Baldwin through the things we learn about his childhood, when he watched many films that influenced him as he got older. We also get to hear about his travels in Paris and see clips of him talking/being interviewed. We learn about his views on many things and of his soaring eloquence when he speaks of his passions. One other key aspect in the film that added to the story of Baldwin’s life was the information about the FBI and how they thought he was a threat to national security, as well as a homosexual (which they believed to be terrible).

    3. I’ve seen this film twice now, first in a theatre in Royal Oak, then at Star Theatre in Southfield. Both experiences were very different. The reason being: the Southfield theatre was filled with people that were black versus the Royal Oak theatre–which was predominantly white. In Southfield, the reactions of the audience were much different, with many “hm”s and “yes so true”s. In Royal Oak, there was hardly any [verbal] reaction from the audience. In this way, I saw the difference between the races while watching a brutally real film about race. Being a person of color, I think I took this movie much differently than a white person because I can relate to the struggle and the oppression talked about in the film. However, I do not think I felt the same way as a black person while watching this film. The type of oppression is different among all people of color. I could relate on some levels, but on others I could not. Yet, I think I felt less uncomfortable than most white people watching the film. The graphic scenes of white people spitting on black children going to school and holding up signs with the Nazi symbol would, I think, make some white folks uncomfortable/disturbed.

    4. I agree with Baldwin when he says the story of the negro in America is the story of America. The film goes through scenes of the past and the present, indicating how these systems of abuse have persisted throughout history. Baldwin also speaks of how the economy, especially in the South, would never have become what it is today without slavery. The black men, women, and children that worked for the white slave owners carried the United States to the present; where it is now a global superpower. And Baldwin says something along the lines of: the country’s success/failure is a reflection of the success/failure of the black people in America. This is true because when, as Baldwin says, 1/9 of the population is struggling, your country will not be strong. The battle for equal rights has never been easy, especially for blacks, and that’s what this film is all about. It tells us, the American people, to acknowledge the system that’s been hurting the negro population for centuries. This will lead to the strengthening of the country; once all parts of it are equal.

  2. Jackson Blau

    2. In I Am Not Your Negro, James Baldwin gives us the history of the Civil Rights Movement through three of the greatest Civil Rights advocates of all time, Medgar Evans, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X. James Baldwin explains that he’s chosen these three men and wants their lives to tell an honest story. We get inside looks into the lives of these three men and their relationship to James Baldwin. I Am Not Your Negro somewhat becomes the story of James Baldwin through the different events we learn about in his childhood. For example, we also get to hear about his excursions to Paris and see videos of him talking and being interviewed. Also, when he watched many films that influenced him as he got older we got to see James Baldwins story. We also learn about his views on many things and of his gifted abilities to speak when he speaks of his passions. One other huge thing in the film that added to the movie was the scenes about the FBI and how they thought he was a threat to national security, as well as a homosexual. At the time homosexuals are seen as terrible.

    3.I believe that my perception of this film would greatly differ from a person of color. I think this because I personally do not fully understand the oppression that people of color went through. Of course I have read books and heard stories about oppression and discrimination but it doesn’t do the people who actually went through this any justice. I saw the film as very informational and eye opening. I feel as if a person of color, who already knows the horrors of oppression, would view this film more personally because they are connected to the events happening in the film. I feel like people of color watching the film would feel personally connected to the film because the film directly portrays events that were huge events in their lives, grandparents, and parents lives. The reason I don’t feel this personally connection is because my family was never affected by these horrors stemming from slavery and oppression.

    4. Personally, I agree with James Baldwin when he says the story of the negro in America is the story of America. The movie shows scenes in the past and the present. He does this to show how these systems of abuse have popped up throughout history. Baldwin says a line close to the country’s success is a reflection of the success of the black people in America. This is true because when more than ten percent of the population is struggling, your country will not be strong. Baldwin then goes on to speak about how the economy, especially in the South, would never have developed into what it is today without slavery. The black men, women, and children that worked for the white slave owners carried the United States to where it is now, a global superpower and policemen of the world. The message the movie tells us is to acknowledge the system that’s been hurting the colored population in America. Once this happens, this will lead to the strengthening of the country through a complete nationalism found in all of its people, not just the not oppressed people.

  3. Emma Marszalek

    2. This film acted as history of Civil Rights Movement. It showed three main leaders, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers. The movie shows how the Civil Rights Movement changed over time. Each leader represented something different in the movement, but they all had the same values. The movie showed the violence and the marches of the movement. Along with the how the people reacted in communities. There were many protests by whites and blacks. The film showed the progression of the Civil Rights Movement. The film was also about the story of James Baldwin. It showed what his relations were with the leaders, and how he impacted the movement. It is about his reactions to what it happening, and how it impacts him. The film showed James Baldwin’s story throughout the Civil Rights Movement.

    3. I may see this movie as somebody who as a different skin color than me. Everybody relates to the movies in different ways. We all bring our all experiences to the theatre. I can relate to the movie differently than somebody else in the theatre. The Defiant Ones was about a black man who jumped off a train for a white man. The white man wasn’t able to get on the train while the black man could. I see this as two people trying to stick together. Somebody of a different color might see this has a man giving up his freedom for somebody else. We may see this scene differently because we have different experiences.

    4.I do agree with the quote,“The story of the Negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story,”. American didn’t come about through peace. There was a war fought for America to become independent, and more fighting to gain the land we know as today as America. Many people died for America. America would not be able to be as prosperous as we are today without African Americans. Although slavery was morally wrong, it helped America get started. African Americans have had to fight for their rights, and still are. African Americans have had to fight for freedom, and then fight for their rights. They don’t have a pretty story. America wouldn’t be the America today without African Americans.

  4. Stav D

    2.) The film acts as a history of the Civil Rights Movement between 1955-1968 as it illustrates three of the most influential civil rights leaders. James Baldwin says he will us these three men to depict an honest story. The men are Martin Luther King Jr, Medgar Evers, and Malcom X. The way this makes the film act historical is by showing three different approaches, from peaceful to sometimes more violent, at gaining civil rights. In contrast, the movie in many ways isn’t historical, rather a film about James Baldwin and his life. The film explains what Baldwin did when he was younger for example how he lived in France and voiced his opinion. Also, the film shows how Baldwin watched films as he got older that had great amounts of influence upon him.
    3.) I believe that my takeaways from the movie would differ from another person of a different race. Being a white male in a white male dominated society makes watching a film like this seem historical, but the struggle of oppression for blacks is not over. For me, watching this film was a reminder of how bad racism used to be, the progress that has been made, and the work that still needs to be done. Along with this, I learned about historical figures more such as Martin Luther King Jr, Medgar Evers, and Malcom X. However, I could see how for a person of color it could be much more emotional to watch a film like this as there is a greater connection between you and those people.
    4.) I agree with the quote, “The story of the Negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story.” Although slavery was one of the cruelest thing that’s happened in American history, it’s the reason the southern economy was so prosperous. America was built on the backs of black slaves, and they shaped the way our country is today. Without early blacks in America, the south wouldn’t have been financially stable, and it’s hard to run a country on half a country’s wealth. In other words, the black slaves were the reason that America had a chance at running, and that makes them the story of America, but we all know that slavery was nothing pretty.

  5. Michael Wainer

    1. As a young child, movies deeply affected the life of James Baldwin. This includes not knowing that he was black because he was so used to seeing only white people. More importantly it gave him what ended up being false heroes. For example, as a child he looked up to John Wayne, but as he grew older he started to despise the things that Wayne stood for. The times earlier in life when Baldwin saw John Wayne defeating an Indian he idolized Wayne for saving the day, however he eventually realized that he himself was the Indian and John Wayne was the villain. As a person of color he felt that the Indian represented African-Americans in their fight for civil rights, and John Wayne represented White America putting them down. The films using Sidney Poitier were used to show the difference of perspective between black and white Americans. In both “The Defiant Ones” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” white people were able to see progress, but black people hated them because they felt that that the white people had not done enough to make up for what the crimes against their race.
    2. This movie very clearly describes the life of James Baldwin. It tells us about him growing up as a child. He originally thought he was white because everybody that he saw was white and he had no mirrors. He talks about moving to France. He moved there with nothing and only comes back to America for his family. He hated everything about America. It also describes his personal relationship with three civil rights activists, Medgar Evers, MLK Jr, and Malcolm X. These men also help to show the Civil Rights aspect of the movie. It shows how they were murdered while fighting for their rights. None of the men lived to the age of forty. It also shows clips of the first African-American students to attend a white school. Both of these segments showed the black people continuing to fight through oppression as they really did during the civil rights movement.
    3. Throughout the movie it is shown how different the perspectives were for people of different color. This is similar to how people of different races may view this movie. Living as a white person I do not have the perspective that black Americans do to fully understand the oppression and hardships that are discussed in the movie. Because of this the movie probably speaks to me less than someone who fully understands it.

  6. Kyle Alkatib

    2. I Am Not your Negro acts as a history of the Civil Rights Movement from 1955-1968 because the film shows us the three greatest Civil Rights leaders, Martin Luther King Jr., Medgar Evans and Malcom X. In the movie, Baldwin tells us that he chose these three men because he thinks that their lives will tell an honest story. This movie shows us the different ways each of these three men approached the issues of Civil Rights. Some of them were peaceful and some became violent. Each person just has a different way of fighting for their rights. This film is the story of James Baldwin because it starts at the beginning of his life and we get to see a lot of his childhood and how he grew up. In this film we get to see his different viewpoints on things and we also get to see him take trips to Paris and other things he did in his life. I really feel like that this movie was all about James Baldwin’s life.

    3. I believe that I would understand this movie much differently than a person of different race for many reasons. White males were always on top since we founded America and it has always been like that. Black males had the exact opposite life. So for me I just saw this movie as historical and not personal like how an African American would view this movie. I think that because I have never went through what any of these black males went through. All I’ve done was learn about it. African Americans are much more connected because their grandparents went through what those people in the movie went through. So they know how it feels and that is why they connect with the movie much better than us.

    4. I agree with James Baldwin when he says that the story of the Negro in America is the story of America. I agree with this quote because the African Americans were the backbone of our country. They were the ones that did all the farming and the hard work to make this country rich and strong. The South’s economy would have never been that strong without slavery. These slaves made America what it is today and if it wasn’t for them, we probably wouldn’t be the number one country in the world. This was not a pretty journey though. These slaves went through a lot of rough times because they were not treated well but if it was not for them we wouldn’t be here today.

  7. Lexy S.

    1. Films helped to shape James Baldwin’s view of the world as they were mostly what he saw as the representation of how the world worked. For example, Baldwin was exposed to heroes who overcame conflicts, adversity and oppression. Unfortunately, all the heroes were white. In the unusual circumstance that black people appeared on screen, they were usually villainized, used as waitstaff, or just generally treated badly. The way a child sees themselves portrayed in the media affects their output on life; and so Baldwin was affected by how the lives of black people were so poorly depicted. However, Baldwin was introduced to some of the first realistic black representation when he saw Poitier movies like A Raisin in the Sun and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Poitier movies complexly depicted black people as individuals with human feelings and difficulties. Poitier greatly altered cinema, being the first black actor to win an Academy Award so it’s no surprise that he was included in this film.
    2. The film is able to show a nearly complete history of Civil Rights, considering James Baldwin was so fully immersed in the movement. Baldwin was a leading Civil Rights leader and because of that, he had an outlook on nearly every major event which occurred. Baldwin was able to describe the aftermath of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.’s deaths and even described getting the phone calls prior to the news even being released. Baldwin was so thoroughly involved in the Civil Rights Movement that it was basically his life, the movement not being predominately featured in his documentary wouldn’t be plausible.
    4. I agree that the story of black America isn’t a pretty story in the same way that the creation of America isn’t a pretty story; chaos and suffering have majorly occurred but a lot of good has come out of the situation as well. An unarguable fact of American history is that people of African descent have been treated horrifically, from slavery until present day oppression. However, black people in America have created a rich culture and community that is unified and representative of the best things in America. Like the creation of America itself resulted from European oppression and grew to be a “just” country, black America has grown from the worst circumstances. I don’t think the story of Negro America is a pretty one because there’s been so much strife and oppression; through it all, there’s been a beautiful creation of a new culture and a new people which is something to be greatly admired, though. I’m not African American and so I don’t think that I can form an opinion based on my limited experience with black culture, oppression, and identity. I know facts about living in America as a black person but I don’t understand enough to formulate a valuable opinion.

  8. Nico Jones

    2. This film acts as a history of the Civil Rights Movement from 1955-1968 because it details multiple strategies in which Black Americans have taken in order to secure a better future for themselves and their children. This film most importantly details and revolves around three extraordinary black activists-Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers. By relating the lives of these three great men with personal excerpts from James Baldwin, the audience is able to refer to this film as a timetable of the accomplishments and the tragedies that surrounded the Civil Rights Movement. From King Jr.’s and Malcolm X’s once very diverse stance of how to deal with being an black person living in white America, that was displayed in the film. The audience first viewed the two acting almost as enemies from the way the film placed back-to-back clips of the two disagreeing about each other’s tactics to fighting institutionalized racism. Then the film shows both King Jr. and Malcolm X come together to similar stances where they are able to work together to create a bigger effect, thus ultimately being the biggest reason as to why they were soon murdered by “gunmen”, *cough* the government *cough*, for garnering more influence in the country for the civil rights of blacks. For James Baldwin this is not a history timetable but, the story of his life. Baldwin said himself that in every story he had told he was a witness, therefore this history is how and what he lived. Baldwin lived and constantly battled with fighting racism and telling the stories of those who could not.

    3. I think that my perception of this movie, since I am an African American, is one that has been taught to me since birth. Since I was little, I have been taught that I would have to work harder than my white peers around me because the odds are doubled against me because of my skin tone (and gender). I was also told that had to be quiet and extra subdued when dealing with any kind of white authority or any white person, because in this country a black person most times only has one chance to make an impression on a non-black person before they are put into a category. That category being ghetto and/or stupid, loud, and disrespectful or being put into a group that makes whites think that you aren’t like “other” black people. So, watching this film is not anything that I have not known about. A non-black person watching this film is more than likely half ignorant or completely ignorant of the lifestyle that blacks are forced to deal with in America, making this film eye opening for them. I think this film may make non-black people realize that every American citizen’s life is not treated the same as a white life in America. As shown in the film when Baldwin rebutted the older, white, professor of philosophy on The Dick Cavett Show in 1968 who tried to tell Baldwin that the way of explaining racism in America by putting people into “boxes” is wrong. That white, professor was speaking upon a subject he did not understand, because if everyone in white America didn’t put other people of color into boxes, I really think that racism would not still be a problem in America. Baldwin was talking about what stereotypes that black people have to deal with everyday. If I as a 16 year-old, can understand this concept that a 50 or 60 well-educated professor could not, he needs to research and listen to an African American’s explanation of racism in America before shooting down the explanation of racism from an actual black American. That is what every non-black American needs to do before calling black activist groups such as “Black Lives Matters”, a group that is trying to enlighten those who are ignorant to the black struggle in America, unnecessary. They need to understand that until you view life in America from the perception of African-Americans, you do not get to tell them that the problems they live through everyday does not exist.

    4. I agree entirely with this quote because America was built off of the backs of millions of unpaid, abused, and demonized Africans who had their entire lives and their children’s lives merciless and happily ripped away from them by whites who needed a “little help” in the New World. Without blacks there would not be a story to be told about America. For example, America’s economy would most definitely not be what is today if it weren’t for the millions of blacks in America who were tortured and broke their backs every morning and night serving those who, in turn would demonize them so deeply in their society, that the stereotypes thrusted against them, might ever go away. Slavery, institutionalized racism in America, and blatant racism executed by non-blacks in America haunt African-Americans to this day and that is not a pretty story. The servitude of African Americans in this treacherous country costed them everything and blacks will never be truly repaid whether it’s in compensation or the complete elimination of racism in America. That is the story of America, a country that has a double standard for blacks that makes their rights easier to exclude and inconvenience. This country was built on the idea that everyone was created equal and everyone has the right to life, happiness, and liberty and until this country actually enforces the rights that it ensured everyone, this country will never be whole or “great”.

  9. David Boarman

    2.) This film does an excellent job of giving us an in-depth look at the Civil Rights movement through the lives of here great activists: Medgar Evans, Dr. King, and Malcom X. The lives of these three men were blended together to show how they contrasted each other in many views, but grew close together through their common goal of Civil Rights. The film also shows the progression of the men as they gained more national attention up until their untimely deaths. Secondly, the film brings up through the fascinating life of James Baldwin. The story of James Baldwin is shown through his interviews as well as debates where we learn about his work in France, friendships with Civil Rights leaders, his childhood “heroes” and how his impressions on them changed as he aged, and finally his impact on the American society through his powerful speeches about the white man and how racial prejudice is deeply rooted in him.
    3.) As a white male in a society that is socially oriented for white males, my experience watching the movie is very different from that of a person of color. I cannot directly relate to the sentiments portrayed in the movie and the struggle endured by African Americans back then as well as today. That being said, it does not mean that the movie didn’t imprint on me at all. The parts of the movie where racist cops were savagely beating black men were hard to watch to say the least. It made me feel a sense of shame for my race watching it unfold. Lastly, the movie would most likely have been more emotional for people of color because they could relate to the oppression in the movie whilst I could not.
    4.) I agree with the quote “The story of the Negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story.” I agree with this quote because the African Americans in this country, whether through labor, intellect, leadership, or otherwise have made this country what it is today, but through much more hardships and oppression than whites. When the quote says “It is not a pretty story”, we can see this through slavery, Jim Crow laws, and further oppression during Reconstruction, the Civil Rights movement, today, and practically any other time in American history.

  10. Andrew Beggs

    2) This film “ I am not your negro” acted as the history of the Civil Rights Movement. The film was historical to the movement and portrayed three main motivators during the Civil Rights time period, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers. Each one of these famous figures had different morals and values into approaching the Civil Rights Movement, but they were all focused on the same thing, equality. This movie portrayed the different ways of approach to protesting and trying to gain their rights. A lot of the protests and marches were violent but many were peaceful. The timeline/progression of the Civil Rights Movement was shown pretty vividly throughout the story with the advancements that the protestors made. The movie was also not historical; it was focused mainly on the life of James Baldwin and what he did in the movement. The movie showed his relationship with the three advocates as well as his story within the CRM. I noticed that the movie emphasized his reactions to what was happening in the CRM and how he took action with the movement.

    3) I know that my takeaways from this movie are mostly different from someone with the opposite color. As a white male, I watch this movie as an informational movie, which I am able to learn new things about the CRM and the oppression faced by African Americans, but I don’t have an extreme emotional connection to the movie as much as people of color. I am able to connect emotionally to this movie because I feel the pain faced by blacks, but I will never truly understand because I have not seen or faced the hardships that these men and women in the movie had. I do not understand this topic as much as a person with color would because I have not faced this oppression. I know a lot about the CRM and I have read many books about the subject, but I will never really be able to connect to this topic as well as a person with color. Both blacks and whites see this movie as a rough time for blacks, but African Americans have a stronger emotional tie to the movie because they were in this position.

    4) The quote “The story of the negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story” is a quote that I can easily agree with. I believe that America is a great place, but we have done many things in our history that are not so great, but they are still a part of our story. Everything single thing that we have done in this nation will be placed in history and never removed. From 1776 to 2017, every decision and action will be placed in our history book, good or bad. The story of the Civil Rights Movement was a terrible thing. Looking back on it, it was extremely cruel and awful, but this story will stay in America’s history and cannot be taken away. So the quote is saying that the story isn’t pretty because it isn’t. We have our ups and downs but it all stays in the main picture of America. So you could replace the word “negro” with many other terrible things that happened in our history, but it all stayed in the book and will not be removed. That is the sad thing about history, is that we cannot take out the bad parts such as the CRM. But this quote is very true in my opinion because our story is not pretty at all; there are a lot of bumps on the way.

  11. Hank Peters-Wood

    2) The film “I am Not Your Negro” acts as a history of the Civil Rights Movement by highlighting many key events and figures of the time. James Baldwin tells the story of the Civil Rights Movement through three of the most moving Civil Rights activists of all time, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers. Throughout the film we are given glimpses of these three men’s experiences, activisms, relations with James Baldwin, and teachings. We are shown multiple significant events including many Civil Rights/ Anti-Civil Rights protests, the bus boycotts, Martin Luther King Jr.’s peaceful protests/speeches, Malcolm X’s violent and vicious protest/speeches, and more. Through this we get to see the true emotion of the Civil Rights Movement and understand that these people who took action were real people with real lives… it digs a lot deeper than an average article or textbook. Besides a history lesson, the film also is about the life of James Baldwin (however these two do intertwine). We see why James Baldwin became the racial novelist/ activist that he was (his experiences with racism, his relations with the Civil Rights activists mentioned above, the films that he watched growing up, etc. all shaped the person he became.) We also witness his journeys to Paris where he learned many valuable life lessons and also spoke his own voice as an independent man. This film follows James Baldwin’s life, through his childhood, his accomplishments, problems he faced, and also through his friends who were the face of the Civil Rights Movement. Some say that his film was purely about James Baldwin, and not the history of the Civil Rights Movement, however I would say that it is about both, because much of James Baldwin’s life directly relates to the Civil Rights Movement.

    3) I believe that the emotion felt of a white person versus a black person is very different while watching this film. I feel that an African American person watching this film may be able to relate to a lot of the feelings felt and struggles faced by characters in the film, and they may also feel sorrow for their past family members. As a white person watching this movie, I felt disgusted of what somebody can do to another, I felt ashamed/remorseful of what my race has done, and I felt extremely sorrowed for what people had to go through during this era, and still somewhat face today. Watching white cops beat black people, white people scream racist things and try to hurt other African Americans, including children, and watching the unjustifiable segregation was very hard to witness, but it also helps educate us of how evil a lot of our past actions were.

    4) “The story of the Negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story.” I could not agree with this quote more. Black history is American history and our ancestors have neglected and mistreated a major portion of our society for generations. Slavery and the period of segregation was horrific. Whites abusing blacks and whites feeling a false sense of superiority. Still today, we don’t appreciate how significant our fellow African American citizens our to our nation, instead we feel the need to contain our appreciation to a single month. African American history IS our history, we don’t need one month of containment, we need to proudly celebrate it every day like we do white history. Without African Americans we would not have open heart surgeries, gas masks, parts necessary to the light bulb, peanut butter, and so much more, and yet we don’t fully appreciate their accomplishments or work to society. Black history is American history, and blacks have not been treated correctly as every American should.

  12. Grace Jung

    2. I am not your Negro acts as a history of the Civil Rights Movement from 1955-1968 by going through the lives of the 3 people that effected the Civil Rights Movement the most. Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr, and Medger Evers. Samuel L Jackson was narrating the part of James Baldwin and the story of how James met most of these men and how they impacted the movement and what each of them specifically did. It accurately portrays the timeline of the Civil Rights Movement because James talks about how each individual reacted towards this movement. The narrator of the movie who voices James Baldwin goes on to talk about how Malcolm X and Martin Luther King both fought for the same liberties except how they went their own way on how to fight for them. It talked about how Malcolm X formed the Black Panthers and shows that he was for violence. And that Martin Luther King took a different path and thought that violence was not needed. This is the same thing that we learn in our history books and classes, except this movie goes more in depth by giving the viewer a more intimate reality of these situations. The movie also shows clips of the boycotts led by Martin Luther King and also the speeches he spoke in front of crowds of thousands. This film signified the bond that each of these three men shared even though they went about it at different ways. Not only did this movie go more in depth than most textbooks but it was narrated in the eyes of James Baldwin. You get to see the growth of a man and how he came to what he is known for. You see his ties with these three public figures grow and you see his constant battle that he fights against racism. You see his own life told to you by him, talking about how he grew up in Harlem and how his friends died young. Then it showed pictures of the African American children who never got past the age of 18. He played an active role in the Civil Rights Movement just like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, but he didn’t try to publicly put himself out there. This was his reality at that time. His life is our history written in textbooks and spoken by teachers.

    3. Well I am Asian. Unlike African Americans I do not face the harsh judgement that they face every single waking moment of their lives. But, I do not face the lenient life that white people today are given. I am somewhere in the middle, not fighting a constant battle, but facing an undertone of racial judgement. Of course the understanding and connection to this film would be different for different people of color because of how we are treating today and how much we can relate to this film. I’m assuming that a lot of white people can sympathize the hard ships and racial prejudice that the black community faced, but cannot empathize with them. Neither can I. I think that African Americans are faced with racial judgement far greater than anybody of color because of their past history with white people. But I think that I do have an understanding of what they felt and still feel today. My parents are immigrants from South Korea. They were treated inferior than a normal human being because they didn’t know English well and came from a foreign country. The prejudice that they faced back when they first moved to America I still see today when I go to a store and they talk slower for my parents even though they perfectly understand what they are saying. I can hear the jokes that they come up with about my parents behind their backs. This angered me far more than anything I have ever heard or seen. But then the movie showed more horrific things that people were doing to these black men and women, and I think about how furious and hurt they must be. The black community was targeted and bullied for years and to see this movie highlight all this must have given them something to relate to. Must have stirred emotions that most people tell them to get over and forget about it.

    4. I agree with the quote “The story of the Negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story.” I agree with this quote because ever since America was founded there had been slavery. Maybe it first didn’t start with the enslavement of African Americans, but slavery was still there but different people were enslaved. When African Americans were enslaved by the white man their rights and liberties and anything that made them human were gone. They were powerless from the beginning. They had to face the harsh winters and they were the ones who were growing our crops and harvesting them. They were feeding America by becoming the backbone of that nation. And if we compare this to the white man, they were similarly “enslaved” but not physically. They were not given the civil liberties that they had a right to so they left to America so that they could be free. They fought a Revolution so that their ties with Great Britain were no more. African Americans did exactly the same thing. The Civil War was their Revolutionary War that broke their chains that enslaved them to the white man. The Negro story in America is the same story for every American. Maybe it wasn’t as intense and vicious as the negro but it was the same. And it wasn’t pretty. Blood had to be shed for their freedom. They had to fight back with violence. There was no other way for them to fight back because if they tried to peacefully separate themselves from the other it didn’t work out. Negros could not ask their slave owner for their freedom and neither could the colonists ask the King to leave them alone. Both were doing so much to prosper except they couldn’t own that prosperity.

  13. Lily Meinel

    2. In I Am Not Your Negro you learn about the Civil Rights movement on a new level. You get to see it not a new level because James Baldwin is telling it from his perspective and Malcolm X’s, Martin Luther King Jr’s, and Medgar Evers perspectives as well. Baldwin says that he chose these men because the stories their relationship would make to the truth about what was going on during the Civil Rights Movement. We get to see a different side to these 3 men’s lives during the movement and how what they were doing was different from each other. Like how Malcolm X was pro-violence and King was anti-violence and believed that violence does no good. But then you see how most of these men were all friends and did not hate each other because they were all fighting for the same thing. As the movie plays on the watcher gets to see clips/images of the bus boycotts, riots, peaceful and violent protests (of today and back then), lynchings, Little Rock Nine (and others African Americans going to a white school), and the horrible things that the white people would do to the blacks. As all of that is happening you see how Baldwin grew up and became who he is. We get to hear about his time growing up in Harlem, New York and how the tv shows he watch when he was little had a different meaning to him when he was 4 then when he was 12. He talks about how when he was little that is was horrifying when he learned that the country you loved so much does not love you back they you love it. Which makes the movie a lot more deep and personal to Baldwin as well. We see that he comes back to help in the Civil Rights Movement from France because he knew his brother and sisters needed his help.

    3. I watch the movie in the AMC Star movie theater in Southfield. The crowd there was mostly black. The movie hit me hard but, not even the same as a person of color. The movie did not shock me because in class we learned about some of the horrors that white people did to blacks during the Civil Rights Movement. In the movie there is a scene where a white male is holding up a “white power” sign with a swastika on it. That made my stomach churn. Or when that on white women was talking about how integrating schools is a sin and that God wanted people to be separated made me cringe. To me it is mind boggling that people could think like that. I could not understand why white people thought that they were better because of the color of their skin. We are all human and we are all equal. It made me so upset that white people back then actually believed in “white power” and it is still a thing that is happening today which is so sad. But when a person of color is watching the movie they can relate to the movie. This movie to them hit them deeper than it will ever hit me because of the fact that I am white. And the fact the the white people were the ones doing all of these unforgivable things to black people.

    4. I fully agree with this quote because of what I saw in the film and what I know about the Civil Rights Movement. White people would kill blacks just for being black. The signs that white people would hold up were just disgusting and rude things. The fact that white people would spit on the black kids for just trying to get a better education because the public all colored schools were not as good as the all white schools. Baldwin in a speech talks about how the South would be nothing without the slaves that did all of the work for the white people. Even after the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments were signed white people found was to keep them from moving up. White people did this with forming the KKK, or the Jim Crow Laws, sharecropping, and Black Codes. Or convicting black people of crimes they did not do or convicting them of dumb crimes (i.e. speaking loudly when in the same room as a white women) and using them for convict labor. White people did everything to push black down. But civil rights has never been easy. I would say the road to civil rights never pretty for anyone. So I do agree when Baldwin says that quote.

  14. Emily Juriga

    2. This film acts as a civil rights movement history film from 1955-1968 because of its deep and genuine interviews, video clips, and photography from that time period. In the film, raw videos show opinions of leading civil rights leaders, like Malcolm X, James Baldwin and Martin Luther King Jr. For me, it was immensely interesting to see the conflict between different civil rights leader, like Baldwin and Malcolm X, and how their virtues differ. This film shows footage and photos from civil rights protests, and intense cruelty from police and racists. But the way that this film is less of a history of the whole civil rights movement and more a history or story of James Baldwin is the presence Baldwin’s voice over and opinions of events and explaining his thoughts. Much of the footage is of Baldwin debating to progress his civil rights efforts, and trying to get across to the government and the racists keeping Africa Americans down in American Society.

    3. I think my perspective of this film is completely different than someone of color, because I am white, I have never felt the resistance and the fight of society to keep me down because of my ethnicity or my skin color. Equality in America has still not been fully reached, but thanks to the leaders of the mid-20th century like MLK, Malcolm X and James Baldwin, America has opened more and more to equality, but that doesn’t mean for a second that racism and discrimination have not disappeared. Something that occurred during the end of the movie that I found very disturbing was a woman giggling when photographs of lynched African Americans were shown. She might have been having a previous conversation with someone else previous to the showing of the photos that made her scoff, but I cannot give the satisfaction to her that any action like that, at that moment is acceptable. To everyone else in the theatre, it was extremely disrespectful and completely inappropriate, and only proves further that everyone sees events and situations differently, and to my close minded self, I could never have thought someone could show such disrespect, but sadly I was wrong.
    4. I agree with this quote that came from James Baldwin, because it is completely true. America thrived and fed off of the labor and work of African Americans though slavery for hundreds of years, and America owes it economic advantages through those years to the forced labor of slaves. The story of the negro in America is the story of America, the majority of the white south back before the civil war, accepted that white people were the superior race of all, and though Northerners might have denied that, and were against slavery, the work slaves were doing for the country put the economic industries in America ahead in the north too. The labor African Americans, who were enslaved, put into American society has gotten America to where it is economically today. America and the American government had used slavery as an economic leverage up until the civil war, but white majority local and state governments still forced African Americans to slavery through the passage of the 13th amendment, and through convict leasing and Jim Crow laws.

  15. Gus Koza

    2) In “I am Not Your Negro” tells as story about the civil rights movement from the perspective of James Baldwin. He also played a key role as a Civil Rights activists at the time. Also included on the activist list at the time were Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers. During the course of the movie we are given hints about the history of these fellow activists that includes their bus boycotts, Malcolm X’s violent and vicious protest/speeches which included many other things as well. Throughout the movie we are shown the history through a perspective in which I have never seen before. You can see the emotions running in the movie which gave me a different perspective on the civil rights movement. In this we are also taught why Baldwin became an activist including the history behind it. This also includes trips around the world in which sparked many of the ideas we love today. In the history portion that describes Baldwin we also learn about the harsh environment he had to go through as a child.

    3) The emotion I found was different in the movie than I have ever seen before specifically in the eyes of a white person compared to the perspective of an African American at the time. Its different as an African American watching this film since they can relate to both current events and history of brutality that goes back hundreds of years. It sad to see but is captured in a great way in this movie that really brings to light the torture many of these people had to go through and what they are still going through today. These similar events can be found today in police brutality towards African Americans that is unnecessary.

    4) “The story of the Negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story.” I would have to agree with this quote. Through out the history of African Americans they have been poorly treated found in slavery and segregation which created a terrible environment in which these people had to live in. This sense of superiority unfortunately still is around today as racism. We appreciate the African Americans in a designated month but it still doesn’t seem like enough. I feel as though this race was the back bone of this country and still is today and we should do more to support them and not treat them terribly now and forever.

  16. Christian Ravela

    2. In the movie I Am Not Your Negro, James Baldwin gives us a graphic history of the Civil Rights Movement by telling us through the free of his friends, and some of the great Civil Rights leaders; Medgar Evers Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X. Each and every one of these leaders and people had lived very unique lives. But the main thing that you could get from each and every one of these leaders was that they all fought and believed in equality for all black americans in the United States. The movie gave us great insight on the various approaches and paths the leaders took, through their fight for equality. I noticed that there were various types of clips of black americans and also white americans protesting. Some of the protests were peaceful and some of the other protests were quite graphic and horrid. Also, the movie was not that much historical at all, the main focus of the movie was the life of James Baldwin and the things he said during the movement. But the movie also focused on some other things, like the relationship James Baldwin shared with the three other advocates and James Baldwin’s various stories throughout the Civil Rights Movement.

    3.Everyone, regardless of color of skin, is different. As a person whose race was neither of the races mainly focused on in the movie, an Asian Person, I think my perception and view on the film will be very different from a person of color. Although I have been named various times “a person of color” by people I got to school with, my personal opinion on what color of skin I am classified is that, logically, I am a person of color to a certain point. Because of the fact that the pigment of my skin is not white but also not black, and my viewpoint, based on when I look at a mirror or look at my hands, I am colored. As a person who has literally been called colored, I watch this movie questioning myself, “If I were to live in this time period, would I also be treated like this, like I were black?”. My parents are immigrants, they are immigrants who have migrated from the islands of the Philippines. Every now and then I do encounter a couple situations where my family and I are faced with racism. We could be at the store, on vacation, or even at the airport. We are sometimes made fun of or looked at different because we look different and just because we stand out we are treated differently. For example, growing up, I originally lived in Royal Oak, so I went Royal Oak Public Schools, when I went pre-school I notice that there wasn’t any other kids who looked like me, I noticed that there were so many white kids, and not so many black or asian kids. As a matter of fact, I honestly believe there was me and 3 other black kids in my pre-school class of at least 25. I faced many white kids who looked at me and thought I came from China because I looked asian I was immediately confused. My face was not anything like the faces of the many other chinese. They stretched their eyes and stuck out their tongues at me, it wasn’t just in preschool, but also throughout elementary, it happened on what it felt like the daily and I never came home and told my parents and only have I recently told them that I was treated like that. But after watching this movie and looking at the ways black people were bullied over the years of the civil rights movement, it made me realize what I went through wasn’t as bad as what they went through. They were treated worse and I cannot compare my experiences with racism with their experience with racism, it is just way too out of proportion.

    4. I agree with the quote, “The story of the Negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story.” I agree with it mostly because ever since America really got its feet moving, there was always slavery. Slavery was indeed not a pretty story and that ugly story lived on with america for several years and it was fought very hard for slavery to end, and the reason why it got to the point of abolishing it, was because it was actually starting to become obsolete. Although it might have not been the enslavement of african americans, the story of america heavily dealt with the african american. Ever since the beginning the African americans, were powerless, their word had no say in America. They were and are exactly the backbone of America, their hard work fed and clothed the Americans. African American’s even fought side by side with the people who put them on the plantation. They were restricted and segregated by JIm Crows and they were treated horribly by the fact of the color of their skin. It is unarguable, the story of the Negro in America is in fact the story of America and it was truly indeed, not a pretty story.

  17. Nick Capinjola

    2.In the film I Am Not Your Negro the history of civil rights is shown through the plot of the movie. In the film we are taught about civil rights leaders like Malcolm x and Martin Luther king. Both of these men were externally important to the civil rights movement in their own specific ways. These men were picked because their roles portrayed the true story of civil rights and how it was. Being involved in civil rights was always important to these men and this film examines their life and how, as colored men, worked hard and against the odds to better the life for minorities and bring tie equality to America.

    3 this film showed me the truest form of what the struggles of African Americans and other minority’s truly was in that time period. I gained an even bigger amount of respect and sorrow after seeing some of the most terrible and detailed stories and images of what being black truly meant. It was hard to see that being a minority, black in this case, was meat with fear from others. The black culture was combined with stereotypes and the mind of whites became closed and fearful. This movie has taught me even more about the truly horrific things the blacks went through and brought greater sadness to me. I have learned and watched many thing about the horrors of slavery, but it never truly entered my mind, and it shows how much people and government try to defend or backup slavery. There is not backing up slavery, only accepting, and working to continue fighting for the rights of every person in America.

    4.”The story of the Negro in America is the story of America. It is not a pretty story.” It is true that this country was build on the backs of slaves. Many whites and other minority’s put in the work to build this country but the whites were the only ones credited. I feel as though, even to this day, there is an utmost truth to the quote. We sometimes like to hide out past and come up with reasons to defend it, but we must accept what we did in our history and do everything on our power as people with voices to make sure nothing ever happens like this again.

  18. Joshua Salter

    2. This acts like a history to the Civil Rights Movement in 1955-1968 because during the movie, it talks about events and things that happened from this time period leading up the assassinations of the three civil rights leaders. Like for example, James Baldwin would talk about either King, Malcolm or Evers and like the first time he met him or facts about him or events that he took place in during the time period of 1955-1968. It’s not a history of James Baldwin but was a story because the movie is based off the book that he never finished, so most of the events are told from his perspective which could possibly make it a story told by James Baldwin rather than a history.
    3. Your perception of the scene “The defiant ones” could possibly differ between the perceptions of another skin color viewing this scene. Like for example people were grown up and taught differently and have their own different views and opinions on things such as what was portrayed in this section of the movie. Like for example, any race another than white could possibly see this as racism in a way because they see an African-American man handcuffed to a white man and they are fighting. Another way someone could view this differently is based on their education in school, if you went to a school that had a biased teacher, than you could see what she sees in the scene. These are some ways the section The Defiant Ones can be opinionated by races other than yours.
    4. I kind of agree with the quote, I agree with the end part of the quote, when it says “It is not a pretty story”, This part I could possibly agree with because of the way slavery went about and how poorly slaves were treated, some examples, Slaves were beaten by their slave owners, and for other slaves watching their friends/peers be beaten could possibly not be a pretty sight for them, another example is after slavery was abolished, and African-American men were allowed to vote, Groups such as the Ku Klux Klan intimidated and hurt African-Americans, they intimidated them by standing outside places where you could vote, and they stood there and messed with you. Another example is the compromise of 1877, when federal troops were taken out of the South and left African-Americans and Southern Abolitionists with basically no armed enforcement of their new rights. The first part of the quote I kind of don’t agree with because African-Americans weren’t the whole story of America, yes they were a part of the story of America, but there were also people like Native Americans, who got pushed around by Colonists, and colonists were a part of the story of America.
    This why I agree with some of the quote but not all of it.

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