By Artur Balanovskiy

Artur Balanovskiy

Race, Identity and Globalization

 Love is the Answer

Darnell Moore stated in a course named Race, Identity and Globalization that, “Love eliminates

space that would keep you apart.” That seems to be the point of the course as a whole- learning to

eliminate the space between people of different races, genders, classes, etc., and how that requires an

understanding of both other people and one’s self. When one interacts with another individual, in a way

they are faced with themselves. Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin was a clear attempt to break

the barrier between people, and it was successful because Baldwin wrote understandingly from the

perspective of his own oppressors. By contrast, some messages such as one particular sermon by Jeremiah

Wright are not as successful because of their hostile and differentiating nature. When interactions of any

kind, face to face or through art, are initiated with an effort to understand each other, people grow to love.

When they alienate any group or individual, however, they further create the separation between people,

and greatly impact the success and reactions that will follow.

Going to Meet the Man was James Baldwin’s most direct attempt to eliminate the space between

the black and white communities. He writes from the perspective of a white debt collector named Jesse,

who harbors strong white supremacist feelings that influence his actions towards Civil Rights protestors,

and people of color in general. Yet Baldwin presents this character, who had beaten and battered a black

protester early in the story, in a way the reader can sympathize with. Baldwin understood that nobody is

born with such hatred in their minds, and it takes an effort to see from another’s viewpoint to begin to

love them. Through his writing, Baldwin is eliminating space between himself and his oppressors. Aside

from putting in perspective the brutality that white supremacists have been taught, he also comes into

contact with himself through this writing. He sees how his oppressors see him and understand that the

way he is seen is a result of the victimization his so-called enemies have faced. Therefore, by hating his

oppressors he understands he hates a victim, and with that knowledge he can learn to stop hating and start

loving. In fact, his readers can begin to see that if they cannot learn to love their enemies, they are further

alienating both sides from each other. This is what makes Baldwin so highly regarded and respected as a

writer and Civil Rights activist: he teaches us to love.

When one’s interactions with others do not inspire love, those who cannot identify with them

will usually become defensive and aggressive towards them and their message. Jeremiah Wright is a

prime example of this. Wright is the pastor at president Obama’s church in Chicago, and has even been

called Obama’s mentor. Yet he came under scrutiny during the campaigning for the Democratic primaries

between Obama and Hillary Clinton, because of a sermon he gave where he explained (in a passionate,

maybe even aggressive way) that Clinton could not understand the struggles of being black and fighting

for equality with “rich white people.” His message about the struggles of black people was not wrong. He

even said at one point that Jesus taught him to love his enemies. What he did, however, that caused him

to be called a racist and painted in a negative light was that he differentiated so strongly between Hilary

Clinton, as well as the white community as a whole, and Obama. By saying white people could never

understand the struggles of black people, and that Clinton’s struggles could not compare to Obama’s, he

was appealing to much of the black community who could sympathize with his words, but alienating the

white community. Rather than eliminated the distance, he was creating it. This sermon was an interaction

with white people, and Hilary Clinton, and his claims that she could not understand their struggles is

evidence that he could not understand hers either. His interaction illuminated how he sees himself, and

Artur Balanovskiy

Race, Identity and Globalization

when his reaction is one of blaming the other, he is really placing self-blame on somebody else. He was

creating hate rather than love, because he was creating separation instead of deleting it, due to his own

inability to understand his other.

In class Professor Moore asked us to find the differences in the message, rhetoric, etc. between

James Baldwin’s writing and Jeremiah Wright’s sermon. In many ways the two are similar. Both are

passionate about the struggles of the black community, and fight to see its advancement. Yet while

Baldwin’s Going to Meet the Man humanizes a white supremacist, a true racist (even if a fictional

character), in a way that allows even the oppressed black person to understand Jesse as a person. Wright,

on the other hand, creates an evident separation between a white Democrat who opposed the black Obama

politically. Baldwin brought different people together while Wright ended up pulling them apart. Baldwin

created love, and Wright’s sermon did not. For that reason Wright faced a backlash and was accused

of being a racist: his sermon makes love between the white and black communities impossible. Love is

the key to creating change though interactions and art. We ask the question of how to solve the world’s

problems and inequalities, and love is the answer.