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?
Tokom 1960-ih, Ef-Bi-Aj je prikupio skoro dve hiljade dokumenata u okviru istrage jednog od najpoznatijih američkih umova. Predmet ove istrage je bio pisac po imenu Džejms Boldvin. U to vreme, Ef-Bi-Aj je sprovodio istragu o mnogim umetnicima i misliocima, ali većina njihovih dosijea nije bila ni prineti veličini Boldvinovog. Tih godina kada ga je Ef-Bi-Aj progonio, postao je jedan od najprodavanijih autora crne rase na svetu. Pa, zbog čega je Džejms Boldvin toliko dobio na značaju u mašti kako javnosti, tako i vlasti?
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.
Rođen je u Harlemu 1924. godine i bio je najstarije od devetoro dece. Sa 14 godina počeo je da radi kao propovednik. Držeći propovedi, razvio je svoj spisateljski izraz, ali i sve veće neslaganje sa stavom crkve u vezi sa rasnom nejednakošću i homoseksualnošću.
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.
Nakon srednje škole, počeo je da piše romane i eseje dok je radio niz čudnih poslova. Ali pitanja koja su ga odbila od crkve bila su neizbežna u njegovom svakodnevnom životu. Stalno se suočavao sa rasizmom i homofobijom, bio je ljut i razočaran i žudeo je za manje ograničenim životom. Tako se 1948. godine, u 24. godini, preselio u Pariz kao spisatelj stipendista.
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."
Iz Francuske je objavio svoj prvi roman „Idi i reci to na gori“ 1953. godine. Knjiga se odvija u Harlemu, a istražuje crkvu kao izvor represije i nade. Bila je popularna kod crnaca, kao i kod belaca čitalaca. Dok je sticao priznanje za svoj književni rad, Boldvin je sakupio svoje misli o rasi, klasi, kulturi i izgnanstvu u svom proširenom eseju „Beleške domorodačkog sina“ iz 1955. godine.
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.”
U međuvremenu, pokret građanskih prava je hvatao zamah u Americi. Američki crnci su postepeno sticali prava registrovanja da glasaju i glasanja, ali im je i dalje bilo uskraćeno osnovno poštovanje u školama, autobusima, na radnom mestu i u vojnoj službi. Iako je do kraja života prvenstveno živeo u Francuskoj, Boldvin se snažno zalagao za pokret, duboko svestan obećanja svoje zemlje koje nije bilo ispunjeno. Video je kako članovi porodice, prijatelji i komšije naglo upadaju u bolesti zavisnosti, zatvorske ćelije i samoubistvo. Smatrao je da njihove sudbine proističu iz ograničenja podeljenog društva. Godine 1963, objavio je „Vatru sledeći put“, impresivan portret rasne borbe za koju je smatrao odgovornim belački deo Amerike, ali je išao i dalje, tvrdeći da rasizam škodi i belcima. Prema njegovom mišljenju, svi su neraskidivo zamršeni u istoj društvenoj strukturi. Dugo je verovao u sledeće: „Ljudi su zarobljeni u istoriji i istorija je zarobljena u njima.“
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.
Boldvinova uloga u pokretu za građanska prava prevazilazila je posmatranje i izveštavanje. Takođe je putovao američkim jugom i prisustvovao skupovima na kojima je držao svoja predavanja. Vodio je debate sa belcima političarima, kao i sa crncima aktivistima, uključujući Malkolma Iksa, i služio je kao spona crnih aktivista i intelektualaca sa belačkim liderima kao što je Robert Kenedi. Zbog Boldvinove jedinstvene sposobnosti da formuliše uzroke socijalnih turbulencija na način koji je belačka publika bila spremna da čuje, Kenedi i ostali su ga često smatrali ambasadorom američkih crnaca, što je etiketa koju je Boldvin odbacivao. Istovremeno, njegovo umeće sa rečima navelo je Ef-Bi-Aj da u njemu vidi pretnju. Čak i u okviru pokreta za građanska prava, Boldvin bi se ponekad osećao kao autsajder zbog svog izbora da živi u inostranstvu, kao i zbog svoje seksualnosti, koju je otvoreno ispitivao u svojim delima u vreme kada je homofobija bila jako izražena.
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.
Kroz ceo svoj život, Boldvin je smatrao da je njegova uloga da bude svedok istine. Za razliku od mnogih vršnjaka, doživeo je da vidi neke od pobeda pokreta za građanska prava, ali neprekidne rasne nejednakosti u SAD-u znatno su uticale na njega. Iako se možda osećao zarobljeno u svom trenutku u istoriji, u njegovim rečima su se prepoznale generacije ljudi, dok su ih vodile ka suptilnijem razumevanju najsloženijih društvenih pitanja.