Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son

Nonfiction | Essay Collection | Adult | Published in 1961

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Themes

The Complexities of Identity

Baldwin struggled with identity throughout his life, but the nine years he spent in Paris complicated his views on identity further. In Nobody Knows My Name, Baldwin wrestles with the different aspects that form both individual and collective identities, and in particular with what it means to be Black and American.

Baldwin describes his initial move to France as an attempt to escape the oppression he faced as a gay Black man in the United States. In “The Male Prison,” the author describes his own struggle with his identity as a gay man, particularly during a time when anti-gay bias was the social norm. Baldwin struggled to support his family and serve as a preacher while feeling increasingly disillusioned by the church’s attitude toward gay men and overall rigidness. Baldwin felt as though he never quite fit in with his community or his family. Baldwin felt that his race and his sexuality followed him everywhere he went in the United States. Paris offered an escape, but Baldwin argues that there is an expiration date to the clouded vision of the tourist. Soon, every traveler will begin to see the cracks in the sidewalk and realize that no country is without its failings.

In “The Discovery of What It Means to Be an American,” Baldwin expresses that the line separating him and the wider American culture was more than the color of his skin: “we have a very deep-seated distrust of real intellectual effort (probably because we suspect that it will destroy, as I hope it does, that myth of America to which we cling so desperately)” (7). Baldwin was an intellectual, an identity that he felt he could express in Europe. His escape to Paris was an attempt to live and work as a writer and to separate the social forces which had imposed a racial identity upon him from his internal sense of self. However, his time overseas helped him to understand that all Americans had a problem with identity: He could never feel sure whether he was rich or poor, Black or white. Baldwin argues that this uncertainty has become the nature of the American.

Much of the writer’s work is centered on discovering and understanding his identity as an individual. However, Baldwin also considers the identity of being American and how that identity has shifted over time. The only sense Americans have of identity is connected to the outdated principles created by white men at the birth of the country, men who could not conceive the ways in which the country and its racial landscape would change. Americans remain uncomfortable with intellectualism, often mistaking identity for wealth and power. Baldwin connects this theme with The Importance of Self-Examination and Self-Knowledge by arguing that Americans must begin to reflect upon their own identities and how they impose identities upon others. Since the United States is a young country, it has the unique opportunity to carve out its own character. He suggests that people should begin, first, by examining their own lives and biases. In doing so, they will begin to see others for who they are and understand what threads connect them.

White Colonialism and Racism

Baldwin does not shy away from speaking directly about white racism and violence in Nobody Knows My Name. Although he does not often use sensation or gratuitous violence, he speaks frankly about the experiences of Black Americans, especially in the South. His uses his essays to expose the enduring influence of white colonialism and racism in the United States, revealing how these forces continue to oppress Black Americans and shape their lives.

Baldwin describes the reality students face in the newly desegregated Southern states and speaks openly about the challenges Harlem and other predominantly Black neighborhoods endure because of poverty, police brutality, discrimination, violence, and segregation. He also centers his discussion on a global perspective, demanding that white people begin to think about the meaning of colonialism and its impact. Baldwin is not afraid of white discomfort.

His understanding of white discomfort, or what Robin DiAngelo calls “white fragility,” is made clear early in the collection. In Chapter 2, Baldwin describes the presence of American delegates at the Congress of Black Writers and Artists and how it impacted the conversations at the conference. There was a sense that they would not be able to handle certain conversations, so political topics were avoided. Baldwin explains white discomfort as a lack of self-examination. It is easier and far more comfortable to be blind to one’s own cruelty and the reality of the American experience. Baldwin expands on this idea as he explores colonialism and assimilation: He points out that Americans are often critical of European colonization without recognizing their role in the history book of colonialism.

Avoiding rather than confronting discomfort can have dangerous effects. Baldwin explains that when a white police officer begins to see himself and his loved ones in the faces of the people he is meant to serve, he has the option to engage with that emotion or hide from it. Baldwin argues that most law enforcement officers lean in the opposite direction, hating and despising Black people because seeing themselves in others is too uncomfortable. Baldwin praises student movements for enacting change by focusing on liberating all Americans of every race from the prison of racism and discrimination. Baldwin argues that white people are collectively uninterested in change or leaning into their own discomfort to do what is right, so he believes that protest movements play an important role in forcing white Americans to face their legacy of discrimination.

This is illustrated through Northern attitudes toward the South. While visiting the South, Baldwin realizes that the problems of the North are nearly identical to the problems of the South. They are merely packaged in a different way. His family members and friends in Harlem pack themselves away from the white world each day, only to return the next day as workers in an existence of social subjugation. The willful ignorance of many white people in the North means that conditions are not much better for Black communities there. Baldwin demands that his white readers take stock of their own lives and actions. He argues that they must begin to see themselves in totality before they will ever see the Black people in their country as people with rich and complex lives, deserving of equal rights and dignity.

The Importance of Self-Examination and Self-Knowledge

Throughout Nobody Knows My Name, Baldwin highlights the wall that blocks Black and white individuals from truly knowing one another. In the Introduction to the work, Baldwin declares that a writer’s “subject is himself and the world and it requires every ounce of stamina he can summon to attempt to look on himself and the world as they are” (xii). The author repeatedly reminds his readers that self-reflection and self-awareness are required if one wants to examine the world in its totality with clarity and understanding.

Baldwin proposes that people can never begin to see each other or empathize with one another until they have a full picture of who they are themselves. He exposes how often people often go through life without engaging in self-reflection. In Chapter 5, Baldwin interviews a principal of a recently desegregated school. The principal lacks self-awareness, and his statements are full of contradiction. He claims he has no ill feelings toward people of color, but then states that he does not think it is right for Black children to attend white schools. This contradiction is at the heart of the unexamined life. When people are unwilling to look deeply within themselves and challenge their ideas and beliefs, they fail to recognize how their ideas conflict with one another and the world around them.

Like many of Baldwin’s themes, self-examination works on two levels. Baldwin advocates for individual self-reflection and awareness. He argues that each person must begin with his or her own actions: “Though we do not wholly believe it yet, the interior life is a real life, and the intangible dreams of people have a tangible effect on the world” (12). It is therefore important for people to reflect and examine themselves, because their internal lives impact their external actions.

Baldwin also advocates for the self-examination of the larger community. He believes it is important to reflect on American values and American identity. Baldwin argues that American identity is built upon pillars erected in a different America and by white people who had no conception of where the country was headed. Furthermore, Baldwin suggests that the attitudes that Americans have toward others—such as the North’s disfavor of the South—indicates the country’s failure to look at itself and see its own failings. For the writer, personal and community self-examination are thus the first steps toward healing.

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Study Guide

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