Over the course of the 1960s, the FBI amassed almost two thousand documents in an investigation into one of America’s most celebrated minds. The subject of this inquiry was a writer named James Baldwin. At the time, the FBI investigated many artists and thinkers, but most of their files were a fraction the size of Baldwin’s. During the years when the FBI hounded him, he became one of the best-selling black authors in the world. So what made James Baldwin loom so large in the imaginations of both the public and the authorities?
Sepanjang tahun 1960-an, FBI mengumpulkan hampir 2.000 dokumen dalam sebuah investigasi tentang salah satu tokoh cemerlang Amerika. Subjek penyelidikan ini adalah seorang penulis bernama James Baldwin. Pada masa itu, FBI menyelidiki banyak artis dan pemikir, tetapi arsip mereka tak sebanyak milik Baldwin. Selama diburu oleh FBI, dia menjadi salah satu penulis kulit hitam kenamaan di dunia. Apa yang membuat James Baldwin begitu melekat dalam imajinasi baik masyarakat maupun pihak berwajib?
Born in Harlem in 1924, he was the oldest of nine children. At age fourteen, he began to work as a preacher. By delivering sermons, he developed his voice as a writer, but also grew conflicted about the Church’s stance on racial inequality and homosexuality.
Terlahir di Harlem tahun 1924, dia anak tertua dari sembilan bersaudara. Di usia 14 tahun, dia mulai bekerja sebagai pendeta. Sambil berkhotbah, dia mulai merintis karir sebagai penulis, tetapi mulai mempertanyakan pandangan Gerejanya terhadap ketidaksetaraan rasial dan homoseksualitas.
After high school, he began writing novels and essays while taking a series of odd jobs. But the issues that had driven him away from the Church were still inescapable in his daily life. Constantly confronted with racism and homophobia, he was angry and disillusioned, and yearned for a less restricted life. So in 1948, at the age of 24, he moved to Paris on a writing fellowship.
Setelah tamat SMA, dia mulai menulis novel dan esai sambil bekerja serabutan. Namun masalah yang telah menjauhkannya dari Gereja masih terus menghantui hidupnya. Karena terus mengalami rasisme dan homofobia, dia merasa marah, kecewa, dan mendambakan hidup yang lebih bebas. Jadi di tahun 1948, di usia 24 tahun, dia pindah ke Paris lewat beasiswa menulis.
From France, he published his first novel, "Go Tell it on the Mountain," in 1953. Set in Harlem, the book explores the Church as a source of both repression and hope. It was popular with both black and white readers. As he earned acclaim for his fiction, Baldwin gathered his thoughts on race, class, culture and exile in his 1955 extended essay, "Notes of a Native Son."
Dari Perancis, dia menerbitkan novel pertamanya, "Go Tell it on the Mountain" di tahun 1953. Berlokasi di Harlem, buku itu menelusuri Gereja sebagai sumber represi dan harapan. Buku itu populer di kalangan kulit hitam dan kulit putih. Saat karya fiksinya dielu-elukan, Baldwin menuangkan idenya tentang ras, kelas, budaya, dan pengasingan dalam esai panjang di tahun 1955, "Notes of a Native Son."
Meanwhile, the Civil Rights movement was gaining momentum in America. Black Americans were making incremental gains at registering to vote and voting, but were still denied basic dignities in schools, on buses, in the work force, and in the armed services. Though he lived primarily in France for the rest of his life, Baldwin was deeply invested in the movement, and keenly aware of his country’s unfulfilled promise. He had seen family, friends, and neighbors spiral into addiction, incarceration and suicide. He believed their fates originated from the constraints of a segregated society. In 1963, he published "The Fire Next Time," an arresting portrait of racial strife in which he held white America accountable, but he also went further, arguing that racism hurt white people too. In his view, everyone was inextricably enmeshed in the same social fabric. He had long believed that: “People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.”
Sementara itu, gerakan Hak-Hak Sipil tengah bangkit di Amerika. Kaum kulit hitam Amerika memperoleh keuntungan saat mendaftar untuk memilih, tetapi masih didiskriminasi di sekolah, di dalam bis, dalam pekerjaan, dan di angkatan bersenjata. Walau lebih banyak tinggal di Perancis, Baldwin sangat tertarik dengan gerakan tersebut, dan menyadari janji negaranya yang belum dilunasi. Dia menyaksikan keluarga, teman, dan tetangganya menjadi korban kecanduan, penahanan, dan bunuh diri. Dia percaya nasib mereka disebabkan pembatasan masyarakat segregasi. Di tahun 1963, dia menerbitkan "The Fire Next Time," sebuah penggambaran perselisihan rasial yang menurutnya disebabkan kaum kulit putih Amerika, tetapi tak hanya itu, dia pun berargumen rasisme juga melukai orang kulit putih. Dalam pandangannya, semua orang saling terkait dalam tatanan sosial yang sama. Sudah lama dia meyakini bahwa: "Manusia terperangkap dalam sejarah, dan sejarah dalam mereka."
Baldwin’s role in the Civil Rights movement went beyond observing and reporting. He also traveled through the American South attending rallies giving lectures of his own. He debated both white politicians and black activists, including Malcolm X, and served as a liaison between black activists and intellectuals and white establishment leaders like Robert Kennedy. Because of Baldwin’s unique ability to articulate the causes of social turbulence in a way that white audiences were willing to hear, Kennedy and others tended to see him as an ambassador for black Americans — a label Baldwin rejected. And at the same time, his faculty with words led the FBI to view him as a threat. Even within the Civil Rights movement, Baldwin could sometimes feel like an outsider for his choice to live abroad, as well as his sexuality, which he explored openly in his writing at a time when homophobia ran rampant.
Peran Baldwin di gerakan Hak-Hak Sipil lebih dari mengamati dan melaporkan. Dia juga pergi hingga ke Selatan Amerika menghadiri aksi unjuk rasa dan memberi ceramah. Dia mendebat politisi kulit putih dan aktivis kulit hitam, termasuk Malcolm X, dan menjadi penghubung antara aktivis kulit hitam dan kaum intelektual serta pimpinan lembaga kulit putih seperti Robert Kennedy. Berkat kemampuan unik Baldwin dalam menyampaikan perkara guncangan sosial yang bisa diterima orang kulit putih, Kennedy dan lainnya menganggapnya sebagai duta orang Amerika kulit hitam — sebuah label yang ditolak Baldwin. Di saat yang sama, keterampilannya berkata-kata membuat FBI menganggapnya sebagai ancaman. Bahkan dalam gerakan Hak-Hak Sipil, Baldwin kadang merasa terasing karena memilih hidup di luar negeri, dan juga seksualitasnya, yang hadir secara gamblang dalam tulisannya di masa homofobia tengah marak.
Throughout his life, Baldwin considered it his role to bear witness. Unlike many of his peers, he lived to see some of the victories of the Civil Rights movement, but the continuing racial inequalities in the United States weighed heavily on him. Though he may have felt trapped in his moment in history, his words have made generations of people feel known, while guiding them toward a more nuanced understanding of society’s most complex issues.
Selama hidupnya, Baldwin mengganggap dirinya sebagai seorang saksi. Tidak seperti rekan seangkatannya, dia masih sempat melihat beberapa kemenangan dalam gerakan Hak-Hak Sipil, namun ketidaksetaraan ras di Amerika terus membekas dalam dirinya. Walau dia merasa terjebak dalam momen bersejarah itu, kata-katanya membuat generasi manusia merasa diakui, sembari memandu mereka untuk lebih memahami persoalan masyarakat yang paling kompleks.