I Am Not Your Negro

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2017

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Front Matter

Part 1: “Paying My Dues”

Part 2: “Heroes”

Part 3: “Witness”

Part 4: “Purity”

Part 5: “Selling the Negro”

Part 6: “I Am Not A N*****”

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Part 6: “I Am Not A N*****”Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 6 Summary: “I Am Not A N*****”

Baldwin says that history is not simply the past; it is the present and is always ongoing. He frames Whiteness as a “metaphor for power,” and says that the world itself is not White (106).

In an excerpt from television feature The Negro and The American Promise, Baldwin says that he’s forced to be an optimist, because being a pessimist reduces life to an academic idea. He says that the future of Black people is “as bright or as dark as the future of the country” (108). He also notes that the figure of a dehumanized Black person, which Baldwin calls the ”n*****” has been invented by White people. This must mean that White people feel the need for this construction to justify their own sense of superiority within the American social order.

Part 6 Analysis

This final section begins with Baldwin calling Whiteness “a metaphor for power,” which resonates with the theme of race as a social construct that has been created to fulfill certain White social needs. By saying that the world is not White, Baldwin manages to communicate multiple ideas: the idea that Whiteness is not inherently natural or inherently superior; and the idea that White people are in the minority in the world, even if they wield a majority of financial and political power.