Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son

This chapter is a lesson in juxtaposition. Baldwin opens with a reference to Patrice Émery Lumumba, Congolese politician and activist, who was assassinated. Lumumba’s assassination is connected to the political unrest in Congo and the nation’s recent liberation from Belgium’s colonization. Baldwin opens with the juxtaposition of the Congolese prime minister’s murder and a speech delivered by Adlai Stevenson, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations in the 1960s.

In his speech, Stevenson condemns colonialism and challenges perceptions about the United States. However, he fails to acknowledge the role of the United States government in Lumumba’s assassination. Baldwin admonishes the US government’s messaging that Lumumba was a dangerous communist, arguing that aligning political leaders with communism has become an easy excuse for the removal of challenging and polarizing figures. By these standards, Baldwin proposes that he would also be labeled a “Communist.”

He then presents another juxtaposition in the approaches by two major movements: the Black student movements focused on changing laws and desegregation, and the Nation of Islam movements which center on Black supremacy and total separation of races. Baldwin finds inherent value in both approaches. The common denominator in both movements is a shift from requiring Black people to adjust to the racist and oppressive structures of American society to requiring American society to adjust to the reality of a diverse world. White Colonialism and Racism, which rely on ignorance and the concealment of the hatred and violence of white supremacy and violence, cannot use their standard weapons when battling these movements. Both force white people to confront the reality of their treatment of Black Americans.

Throughout the collection of essays, Baldwin reveals how white Americans rely upon ignorance to maintain structures of privilege. The convenience labeling of “Communist” takes away the need for Americans to engage in a process of self-reflection. Baldwin proposes that embracing The Importance of Self-Examination and Self-Knowledge is key to rebuilding and healing. In this essay, he suggests that the United States has a unique opportunity to show the rest of the world what love and social change can look like. Until Americans are willing to engage in the deep and difficult process of self-examination, the country risks falling behind.