Racism and Racial Consciousness During the Twentieth Century in America, Essay Example

Renowned civil rights activist Malcolm X once opined that “Racism is like a cadillac, they bring out a new model every year.” Indeed, racism is not a static phenomenon but rather one that has developed and shifted according to epochal exigencies. The 1978 three-part television film entitled The King documents the life of the most important figure in the Civil Rights Movement by exploring the theme of social and racial injustice that has pervaded American literature and cinema for centuries. Various scenes from the movie explores different facets of racial injustice is present in American society and culture and how proponents of white hegemony sought to undermine any collective efforts to disrupt the racial status quo by King and his followers through explosive violence. As such, the film explores the themes of racial inequality and social injustice through poignant, evocative scenes of the peaceful protests he spearheaded against segregation in the Deep South as well as the marches he led to undermine institutional and structural racism that hampered American society. Such themes are similar to those explored by James Baldwin, a writer and product of the Harlem Renaissance, which was an epoch during which artists and writers facilitated the diffusion of black consciousness to the masses through cultural venues. Doing so empowered African Americans to participate in the socio-cultural movement and fomented hope in their minds that social change was on the horizon through cultural avenues. In Baldwin’s short story “Sonny’s Blues” is told by an Sonny’s brother, who goes unnamed. The narrator works as an algebra teacher at a Harlem high school and comes from a stable household in which the nuclear family is intact.  Because he is older than Sonny, he tries time and again to protect Sonny and lead him down the right life path. However, Sonny becomes addicted to drugs, and only the blues music–a music form that brings together the African-American community during the tumultuous twentieth century and helps foment a sense of community in the face of suffering. Baldwin’s collection of essays, Notes of a Native Son, is an autobiographical collection of his perceptions on different aspects of his being, identity, culture and society. These essays highlight his own views on different issues and as such are heavily influenced by the events in his lifetime as at the collection’s publication in 1955. All films and pieces of literature are a product of the social, political, and cultural  contexts in which they germinated. Race and racial consciousness have been throughout the twentieth century a prevailing theme, which is evident in cultural artifacts produced during various decades. The short stories penned by James Baldwin and the film The King both explore racial consciousness that fomented in the face of suffering and hardship a sense of community among those discriminated against and beaten merely because of the color of their skin.

Baldwin’s short story entitled “Sonny Blues” takes place during the 1950s in Harlem and delves into the theme of racial consciousness and racism that marred American society during that epoch.  In one scene during a flashback, the narrator reminisces about his mother’s request for the narrator to take care of his little brother, Sonny prior to her death.  The narrator’s mother further recollects her husband’s loss when his younger brother was murdered when a group of white supremacists ran him over with their car.  The perpetrators never stopped to check if the victim was okay, and they ultimately committed this crime with impunity, as they were never adjudicated for their crime since institutional racism was firmly embedded in the American justice system. This horrifying scene highlights the theme of racism and the suffering and violence that it entailed. Baldwin witnessed or read about such scenarios on a quotidian basis, which most likely inspired him to pen this short story. However, amidst such trials and tribulations, music emerged as a coping mechanism that cultivated a sense of community amongst disempowered, battered, and subaltern American citizens. Indeed, music retains a communal function because it tells the story of a disempowered community of people whom have historically faced endemic poverty because of their second-class citizenship, Music also evokes intense emotions and feelings in both listeners and performers, which helps them ease the pain and suffering in people’s lives or find repose and solace with other community members who face the same lived experience. In one scene in which Sonny is playing the blues music, the narrator states: “Sonny’s fingers filled the air with life, his life. But that life contained so many others” (Baldwin, 1957, p. 69). Upon hearing the soulful blues music, the narrator momentarily reminds the narrator of all the suffering, tragedies, and misfortunes that befell his parents and his wife’s unbearable pain and sorrow when their daughter extirpated. These memories moved the narrator to tears, as the blues music is powerful and elicits feelings of his own personal pain. Such a powerful experience is a highly transformative one, and it helps the narrator connect with his brother and the other patrons in the nightclub whom also suffer the pangs of racial discrimination. Suffering and tragedy nonetheless can be effectively transformed into a communal form of art as typified by blues music, a black style of music. Such an art form provides a catalyst for meaningful change, and the narrator slowly begins to understand not just the music but also the relationship he forges with Sonny. The notion of community and brotherhood unequivocally emerge despite the apartheid and bifurcation of society according to racial lines in American society during the 1950s.

James Baldwin’s scintillating essay entitled “Notes of a Native Son” is considered to be an autobiographical narrative in which the author recollects information and experiences he learned and went through as an adolescent. The narrative zeroes in on the death of  Baldwin’s father,  which eerily took place on his own birthday while also marking the birth of his younger brother. The story is set in 1943, an epoch in the United States in which segregation remained firmly in place in the north. This historical context and setting helps make sense of why Baldwin so greatly struggled with coping with blatant, violent, and ubiquitous racism that he struggles to cope with.  Living in New York at the age of 18, Baldwin frequently saw the phrase “…don’t serve Negroes” plaster all over in public spaces, which angered and disgusted him (Baldwin, 1957, p. 594). Segregation and apartheid profoundly shifted his perspective on life, which is conveyed in the scene in which the narrator dubs his abhorrence and bitterness as a “chronic disease”…”there is not one Negro alive who does not have this rage in his blood–one has the choice, merely of living with it consciously or surrendering to it. As for me, this fever has recurred…and will until the day I die” (Baldwin, 1957, p. 592). The trope of segregation as a disease is quite powerful since a malady is usually linked to some entity that is infectious, pernicious, contagious, and consuming. Persistent racism cultivates such a stressful environment, which foments ire and anger in those who are victims of it. This disease was imparted to Baldwin by his father, who also was confronted by racism on a quotidian basis. Baldwin’s cogent observations have cemented him as one of the most provocative African-American literary geniuses who left an indelible mark on the Civil Rights Movement..

Similar to the works of Baldwin, the film examines the theme of racial consciousness in the face of profound suffering and violence. the 1978 three-part miniseries entitled The King–written and directed by Abby Mann–traces the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, a seminal leader in the Civil Rights Movement between the years 1954 and 1968 when he met his untimely demise. A winner of one primetime Emmy, the film explores the themes of racial inequality and social injustice through poignant, evocative scenes of the peaceful protests he spearheaded against segregation in the Deep South as well as the marches he led to undermine institutional and structural racism that hampered American society. Reviews were mixed, but the majority of critics lauded it for its accurate portrayal of the personal and private life of Martin Luther King. Critics decry that the majority of the film “compromises the truth with the hokiest of fabrications,” thereby eschewing any epochal concerns for why such distortions were done (Rovi, 2010). While such distortions detract from the documentary nature of the film, epochal concerns must be taken into account for why such inaccuracies were presented. Police brutality has always been a race issue and a larger societal issue. Deflecting the blame on one figure as the reason for police brutality deployed for the preservation of an unjust social and racial status quo rather than limning it as a systemic, institutional problem tempers any outrage that audience members may feel and act on after viewing such a film.

As the film The King underscores, the violence inflicted by white supremacists against civil rights leaders and ordinary African-Americans represents the physical manifestation of simmering racial tensions that undergirded the foundations of social and racial inequality throughout the twentieth century. One scene that alludes to the violence witnessed during the Civil Rights Era is the one in which sheriff “Bull” Connor, the commissioner of public safety in Birmingham, Alabama, threatened to undermine the peaceful protests conducted by young, black school children at the behest of King from his jail cell by shooting powerful fire hoses of water against them. Police let loose attack dogs and attacked the black activists with water hoses. This scene contains some fabrications, however, because it shows Bull Connor’s men walking out of them room upon hearing his suggestions. Such a fabrication undercuts the veracity of the narrative. However, it alludes to the violence witnessed in subsequent scenes because of ubiquitous racism that is present in American society. The director most likely included this fabrication in order to further vilify Bull Connor as the mastermind of the police brutality that was witnessed in Birmingham during this time period. Critics decry that the majority of the film “compromises the truth with the hokiest of fabrications,” thereby eschewing any epochal concerns for why such distortions were done (Rovi, 2010). While such distortions detract from the documentary nature of the film, epochal concerns must be taken into account for why such inaccuracies were presented. Police brutality has always been a race issue and a larger societal issue. Deflecting the blame on one figure as the reason for police brutality deployed for the preservation of an unjust social and racial status quo rather than limning it as a systemic, institutional problem tempers any outrage that audience members may feel and act on after viewing such a film.

Another interesting scene that explores the nuances of the struggle for social and racial justice is the scene that shows a conversation between King and Malcolm X, another Civil Rights leader who embraced a more direct and violent approach to solving racial inequality. Although this conversation never took place, thereby rendering it an imaginary, fictive addition to the story of King, it nonetheless makes sense why the director included it in this movie. Both leaders articulated and discussed their differing points of view in a rational and coherent manner. While King conveyed the sentiments of a diplomat who sought to change the system itself within existing structures, thereby condoning politics of supplication through non-violent tactics, Malcolm X articulated more revolutionary sentiments in which attacking the problem directly through violent means if necessary was called for. Mann included this scene most likely to debunk the dyadic thinking so salient in the American consciousness that renders Malcolm X the embodied antithesis of Martin Luther King Jr. who maintains a fixed image as the hero of the civil rights while vilifying Malcolm X. This scene underscores the reality that neither Malcolm X nor Martin Luther King Jr. were completely wrong or completely right regarding their methods to achieve social justice and racial equality. Both sides were critical in putting ample pressure on America to begin the gradual approach of changing its systemically racist policies and treatment of African Americans.

Ultimately, both the works of James Baldwin and the film The King explore the theme of racial consciousness and racism in the United States. Baldwin’s writings are autobiographical in nature and thus germinate from his lived experience with racism and Jim Crow in Harlem. As such, while many facets of his works can be embellished, the veracity of his observations and statements nonetheless contain kernels of truth. The King, however, portrayed Dr. King is a provocative manner, yet there are blaring fictions included into this film because the filmmaker had an agenda when putting on this production. Often, civil rights efforts and racial consciousness requires the involvement of white Americans and patrons as well. As such, both of these works prompt the viewer and reader to really think about racism and its place in American society today, a time frame that is far removed from the tumultuous sixties and the Civil Rights Movement.

References

Baldwin, J. (1957). Sonny Blues. Retrieved September 15, 2015 from https://books.google.com/books/about/Sonny_s_Blues.html?id=iLdekh_gWIoC&source=kp_cover&hl=en

Baldwin, J. (2012). Notes of a native son. United States: Beacon Press. 

Mann, A. (1978). King: The Martin Luther King Story. Film.

Ngai, Mae M. Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UP, 2004.

Rovi, H.E. (2010). King: The Martin Luther King Story (1978: A review. New York Times. Retrieved September 15, 2015 from http://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/27372/King- The-Martin-Luther-King-Story/overview