This is Baldwin’s revolutionary act: to shift or invert the “white man’s burden.” The problem is not us. Instead Americans must understand as best we can, because our lives depend on it, the consequences of this deadly projection. Through this lens, the “black man’s burden” is the brutal behavior of white people in thrall to a lie. By way of the horrors of slavery, black people became the depository for many of the dangers and terrors white America refused to face. We are made the sexualized beasts, the violent criminals, the reckless and shiftless primitives ruled by passions with no regard
...more
