I Am Not Your Negro

Baldwin recalls a time in his childhood when a young White school teacher took him under her wing. She had serious discussions with him about art and politics. She was a strong influence on him, and part of the reason why Baldwin says he has never really hated White people, but instead suspected their behavior arose from something other than Whiteness. 

Baldwin reflects on the rarity of Black men in cinema and says that the Black actors who were successful “seemed to lie about the world” (19). An exception to this is Clinton Rosemund in They Won’t Forget. Rosemund plays a janitor who works in a building where a White girl is found raped and murdered, and his character is terrified at being accused. Baldwin says this film’s brutality scared him, but also gave him strength. 

Baldwin also notes that the massacre of Native Americans has been cinematically glorified, making the White actors look like heroes instead of violent individuals enacting atrocities. 

In a letter to Acton, his literary agent, Baldwin speaks about going on the road and seeing Coretta Scott King, King’s children, and Malcolm X’s widow.