The Fire Next Time
James Baldwin is a prolific African American Author and playwright . In this book, he discusses his experience growing up in Harlem during the 1960's and his encounter with religion, race and police brutality as a young boy. I chose to read this book because he dives into his experiences with Christianity and explains his reasons from walking away from the faith. Many of his criticisms of organized religion and the racial tension in the United States are sadly still relevant. His powerful words and thought provoking theories resonated with me and forced me to question my hypocrisy. I recommend you read this book or any of his other work.
There are a few of my favorite quotes:
“As long as we in the West place on color the value that we do, we make it impossible for the great unwashed to consolidate themselves according to another principle. Color is not a human or personal reality; it is a political reality.”
“The treatment of the Negro during the Second World War marks, for me, a turning point in the negro’s relation to America. To put it briefly, and somewhat too simply, a certain hope died, a certain respect for white Americans faded ”
“Imagine yourself being told to ‘wait’. And all this is happening in the richest and freest country in the world, and in the middle of the 20th century. The subtle and deadly change of heart that might occur in you would be involved with the realization that a civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless. ”
“The reason that non-violence is considered to be a virtue in Negroes - I am not speaking now of its racial value, another matter altogether - is that white men do not want their lives, their self-image, or their property threatened. ”
“The Christian church itself - sanctified and rejoiced in the conquests of the flag, and the encouraged, if it did not formulate, the belief tat conquest, with the resulting relative well-being of the Western population, was proof of Gods favor”
