Hope Amidst Hopelessness
James Baldwin’s Letter to His Nephew
Perhaps the only way I’ll claim similarity to James Baldwin is by starting this story multiple times before deciding on a direction. I had the disadvantage of having months before it was due, allowing procrastination to disrupt my usual process. I read his letter to his nephew many times, hoping a theme would inspire me. Instead of inspiration, I felt sadness reading Baldwin’s description of America and Harlem, particularly describing his nephew, also named James. The uncle and famous author was not kind in his description of America. He said, “Neither I nor time nor history will ever forgive them, that they have destroyed and are destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and do not know it and do not want to know it.”
Yet, at the end of the letter, the uncle offered encouragement, pushing the nephew to persevere and reminding him of who he was and where he had come from. The suggestions as to how to accomplish that were few. James Baldwin, the uncle himself, left the country, spending most of his later years in France — though never leaving the movement in America. I wondered how the nephew James received the letter. Did he find motivation from his uncle’s words, or did he agree with his uncle’s assessment and simply try to survive? Did the namesake know from whence he came and govern himself accordingly?
