"I Am Not Your Negro" by Jess Clond

       "I am not your negro". Official trailer. February 3, 2017 (USA)

This account was envisioned by James Baldwin from a book he never completed. A movie based on his manuscript was released in 2017.  The setting is the 1960’s, a time when black people -called offensively negroes at that time-were oppressed, and crimes were unfairly committed against them. A time, like Malcom said, white people were not acknowledging black population as humans. They were moral monsters. The movie depicts without hidden sensory the problem of racism in America and asserts the similarities in viewpoints of Malcom, Medgar Evers, and Martin Luther King Jr.; three great figures who defended the rights of black individuals and defined a new idea of understanding and integration for all ethnicities. 

Black people were not welcomed in the schools where whites were the majority. Violence was used upon them everywhere. They felt that the country where they were born had no place for them. The country had failed on them. The countrymen were their enemies. Black people were simply seen as inferior beings who did not deserve anything but to breathe. 

"Stop Race Mixing Propaganda".

The society of that time was defining roles in favor of white population. Heroes were white and good people were white. White people were remembered more romantically than black people. White people were the patriots while the black people were the rebellious. For some scholars, the ethnical segregation was not a color issue. However, the way black people saw the separation was definitely a matter of color. There were churches for white people and churches for black people. There were neighborhoods for black people and communities for white people. Schools were segregated, real estate markets, social events, jobs, just to mention a few. So, black individuals would feel like they were treated differently, and they knew they were excluded from the best benefits of the society. They were the bottom class, and this fact was divulged in movies, commercials, propaganda like the “stop race mixing”, “the negro market”, etc. Violence against the black ethnicity was not only seen in the streets, but it was also shown on television for all the country to watch. This was the message sent. Hate messages. And, for so long, nobody wanted to take responsibility of this issue.

James Baldwin (in sunglasses).

Baldwin exposes the ignorance of the Americans who did not know exactly what the foundation of their hatred was. Where did it come from?  Why this segregation exists? Did they even ask themselves those questions? He suggested that Americans did not know why they were not able to understand the struggles of the black people, and someone needed to act and expose those battles and create a new vision to resolve this ethnical situation. This was the inspiration for Malcom, Medgar, and Martin Luther King Jr. They took their voices, experiences, and ideas to Congress, to churches -it was suggested that the church was not committed enough to love all people as equals-, to the communities, to media, and everywhere.  They were hoping for reconciliation, for integration, for understanding. Shouldn’t we all be the same regardless of our color, they thought.  Then, the revolution finally happened. And this setting resonated to citizens over the whole nation. The march to freedom was a beautiful example of the fight for human rights and the Harlem festival of 1969. The acknowledgement of things that have been going on for decades finally happened thanks to the words and actions of those who were killed fighting for equality and those were resilient for years.

"The March to Freedom". August 28, 1963.