The Fire Next Time, written by James Baldwin, is a long essay split into 3 parts that focuses on Baldwin’s experiences with the Christian church, the Nation of Islam and black discrimination. Baldwin’s experiences shape each part of his life that occurs. His experiences with religion push him to sculpt his own “solution” to the problem of black discrimination. He found through experience that the Christian church and the Nation of Islam were both being hypocritical and preaching the wrong kind of “love” that was needed to overcome the racial divide.
The Christian church offered Baldwin a sense of safety from the dangers of the world around him at a young age. He was driven into the church by the fears that he grew up with that now controlled his vision of the world (Baldwin 27). This was important because the church was his comfort zone, his way of gaining …show more content…
America is handicapped by their narrowness of thinking. By taking their perspective and expanding it on both sides, America and the people living there can become fulfilled and honored in the way that they should be. Baldwin wrote that “People are not, for example, terribly anxious to be equal but they love the idea of being superior” (88). That is human nature, survival of the fittest. We cannot change this but we could overcome it and that is Baldwin’s point. If they expand their way of thinking, then they can overcome the hatred that they created. The blacks and whites need to be ‘united’ if America is to keep thriving the way it has. And this concept of color that was created where one color is superior to the other needs to be thrown away because without doing so, Americans will not reach their full potential. This view is what Baldwin proposed and said should be the solution that Americans go with rather than being in a religion who promotes more
The Christian church offered Baldwin a sense of safety from the dangers of the world around him at a young age. He was driven into the church by the fears that he grew up with that now controlled his vision of the world (Baldwin 27). This was important because the church was his comfort zone, his way of gaining …show more content…
America is handicapped by their narrowness of thinking. By taking their perspective and expanding it on both sides, America and the people living there can become fulfilled and honored in the way that they should be. Baldwin wrote that “People are not, for example, terribly anxious to be equal but they love the idea of being superior” (88). That is human nature, survival of the fittest. We cannot change this but we could overcome it and that is Baldwin’s point. If they expand their way of thinking, then they can overcome the hatred that they created. The blacks and whites need to be ‘united’ if America is to keep thriving the way it has. And this concept of color that was created where one color is superior to the other needs to be thrown away because without doing so, Americans will not reach their full potential. This view is what Baldwin proposed and said should be the solution that Americans go with rather than being in a religion who promotes more