On Jan. 30, along with fellow VOX reporters, I had the special opportunity to attend a press screening of the Oscar-nominated documentary, “I Am Not Your Negro,” written by the late James Baldwin and directed by Raoul Peck. The film tells the story of race in America from Baldwin’s perspective, using his unfinished memoir “Remember This House” as well as connecting the Civil Rights Movement to the present climate in America regarding race.
James Arthur Baldwin was a prolific African-American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet and social critic during the late ’40s through early ’80s. His memoir was unfinished due to his death in 1987 from stomach cancer. This is my reflection.
In this movie
What you learn, may not be that informative, or new
But that wasn’t the point.
And the point doesn’t really hit you till the end, or maybe in reflection afterwards.
In this movie
You’ll realize for black Americans
“It’s a great shock to realize you’re black” in America
And me being raised in white suburbia,
That line is all too true
The feeling of “wishing I were white”
Coats my heart in disdain
That it is in actual feeling many Negroes in America harbor to this day
You’ll see Medgar, Martin and Malcolm
All men who were killed before they reached 40
Banded together in ways you may have already knew,
But have never seen put together in this format
You’ll see pictures and videos of civil rights era violent bigotry
But never under the scope of the particular perspective of a peculiar man
With a peculiar voice, and an even more peculiar mind
That is of James Baldwin
And I’m sure you have never seen so much visual footage of Baldwin either
In this movie, I hope you understand the “helpless rage”
That erupts from the agony of constant sorrow black people are forced to feel
That white “Violence is as American as Cherry pie”
That to the negro, white people are not hated, but we just want to left alone.
Just want for our pain, struggle, disenfranchisement and modern slavery
To not be the building blocks of their society and wealth
To acknowledge “The word white is a metaphor for power” in this country
For white people to realize,
This movie was informative to them
Was new to them.
But just another version of the same old story to us.
The same old beatings, the same old killings, the same old racism we’ve been surviving through
That they have ignored. Or detested as false.
Or chose to live in the “euphoric state … their whole lives”
The gasps and whimpers that escaped the lips of the white audience in the theatre
Were more annoying than anything else to me.
And maybe I’m wrong for thinking this way, but I just don’t think so
That fact that this movie was needed to them, is shameful
Is anger-inciting in me, because in this movie you realize
That black people’s liberation truly does “[Lay] on the White Community”
The community that doesn’t see black men as human, or black women as complex creatures
And for that fact damn near alone, is the reason why you should watch this documentary
America, as a whole, needs this movie,
That’s what should slap you in the face at its abrupt end.
That was the point.
Or at least I think so, in this reflection afterwards.
Ogechi is a 19-year-old student at Georgia State University.
Like Poetry? Spoken Word?
On Saturday, Feb. 18, VOX is partnering with Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB) to celebrate Maya Angelou’s legacy with And Still I Rise Teen Spoken Word Workshop (1-2:45 p.m.) and Poetry Slam (3-5 p.m.).
