James Baldwin’s “Dark Days” (Reflection by Kira Arias)
For my short book reflection, I chose James Baldwin’s Dark Days, a collection of three short essays he wrote between 1965-1985. The first essay, “Dark Days,” details Baldwin’s view of the U.S. education system and race as a social construct. He describes his childhood and the process of socialization into Black versus White identities. The second essay, “Price of the Ticket,” discusses Baldwin’s early career as a writer, his role models and influences, his own identity as a gay Black man, and the hypocrisy of our education system and government when it comes to caring for its own Black citizens. The third essay, “The White Man’s Guilt,” is partially addressed to White people. It builds on themes from the first two essays and calls on White people to face their history.
I was struck by the range of topics and social issues that Baldwin touched on in each essay. There were so many incredibly important social justice themes to incorporate into a language class, but a couple that stood out to me were poverty/wealth disparity and social class mobility. In “Dark Days,” Baldwin states, “The poverty of my childhood differed from poverty today in that the TV set was not sitting in front of our faces, forcing us to make unbearable comparisons between the rooms we were sitting in and the rooms we were watching; neither were we endlessly being told what to wear and drink and buy. We knew that we were poor, but then, everybody around us was poor” (p. 3). I think this part of the essay about Baldwin’s childhood in Harlem and experiences during the Great Depression would create a great opportunity for beginning/intermediate English language learners to practice using the past tense to talk about their childhoods, compare and contrast them with Baldwin’s, and also learn about U.S. history through the lenses of race and wealth disparity.
Regarding social class mobility, there are several portions of the book that provide great material for critical examination with learners. In “Dark Days,” Baldwin writes, “A high school diploma, which had almost no meaning in my day, nevertheless suggested that you had been to school. But today, it operates merely as a credential for jobs – for the most part nonexistent – that demand virtually nothing in the way of education. And the attendance certificate merely states that you have been through school without having managed to learn anything”(p.13). In “The Price of the Ticket,” he writes, “Without a college education, I could, clearly, never hope to become a writer: would never acquire the skills which would enable me to conquer what was thought of as an all-white world” (p. 33). I could envision designing a lesson for intermediate/advanced learners where we discuss the role of education in providing access to job security, wealth, success, and social class mobility. We could also discuss the theme of race and how their racial identities intersect with their professional identities, in addition to their experiences as a minority group in a majority White culture.
I found elements of every theme we’ve discussed in class within the book and I was truly blown away by the relevance of Baldwin’s writings today. At this point, I know I should not be surprised that things in the U.S. have not changed as much we think/say they have– at least, not as much as White people like to think/say they have. Still, Baldwin wrote so clearly about issues such as White guilt, the widening gap between the rich and the poor, the widening racial divide, race as a social construct, and issues within our education system that I would have believed he was writing these things in 2021 if I read his essays with no context. One takeaway is that we need to continue discussing these issues and pushing them to the forefront of social consciousness, and encourage each other to have these conversations in our classrooms and social circles. I really liked reading about Baldwin’s students, and how their discussions of race became much more than that and transformed into a deeper desire to know one another: “They were trying to become whole. They were trying to put themselves and their country together… why is it a condition of American life that they would then be forced to be strangers?” (p.18). My final takeaway is the importance of owning your history and acknowledging the ever-present and systemic issue of racism in the U.S. I’ll end with Baldwin’s description of how and why confronting history will help solve some of these issues: “In great pain and terror one begins to assess the history which has placed one where one is, and formed one’s point of view. In great pain and terror because, thereafter, one enters into battle with that historical creation, Oneself, and attempts to re-create oneself according to a principle more humane and more liberating: one begins the attempt to achieve a level of personal maturity and freedom which robs history of its tyrannical power, and also changes history”(p.43).
Hi Kira,
This was a great reflection. In your last paragraph, you spoke about how Baldwin could have easily been writing about 2021, and I agree. There are so many similarities between the time Baldwin was writing in and the life we live now, especially with the widening wealth gap. I always say that an economy is strongest when there is a large middle class and a small wealth gap, and what we saw in the Great Depression and what we see now is not that. As you said, “owning your own history and acknowledging the ever present and systematic issue of racism in the US” is incredibly important to avoid making the same mistakes as the past.
Another thing that caught my eye in your reflection was the quote from Baldwin about how different poverty became once the television was in every home. There are studies that show people aren’t unhappy with their situation economically as long as everyone around them is in the same boat. Once they start seeing that other people have more, that’s when the envy starts, and that’s when a lot of problems arise. Being able to see, on a daily basis, how much wealthier certain people are, must add to the depression of living in poverty by quite a bit.
Hi Sarah, thanks so much for your thoughts! Your comment about the influence of TV on people’s happiness made me realize this would also be a great text to use to talk about consumerism/capitalism in a language class. Your comment also brings to mind the common saying in English, “Money can’t buy happiness.” I can imagine designing a lesson around these themes and having learners relate their personal experiences to Baldwin’s writing, and discussing the extent to which they believe that material wealth brings happiness. That was a great point!
Key Kira,
I’ve got a love-hate relationship with past pieces being relevant today. It always makes me feel good that I’m able to understand and interpret things in an effective way, but at the same time, it makes me feel like everything is hopeless! Maybe change isn’t as dynamic as we want it to be when we need it most.
Hi Jada, thanks for sharing this! Yes, I agree. I read some of the book to Jonathan (particularly the part about so-called “education” getting you nowhere back in the 80s) and he was like, “I hate everything! Nothing ever changes!” It definitely feels that way after reading this. The most hopeful things I read in the book were Baldwin’s optimism regarding his students’ interactions and the idea that knowing your positionality can liberate you from these cycles of history and oppression.
I remember this part standing out to me as well when I read this book Kira:
“Baldwin states, “The poverty of my childhood differed from poverty today in that the TV set was not sitting in front of our faces, forcing us to make unbearable comparisons between the rooms we were sitting in and the rooms we were watching; neither were we endlessly being told what to wear and drink and buy. We knew that we were poor, but then, everybody around us was poor” (p. 3)”
The TV has definitely changed our lives but I wonder if the effects are more exponential with social and digital media. I really wonder how James Baldwin would write about that.
Hi Deniz, thanks for your comment! That is such a great point. It reminds me of what we are learning in my Services for Student Development Class with David Wick. We have talked about all of the different identities that students can have. A “digital” identity is a new and relatively under-researched identity. I wonder how a person’s race intersects with their digital identity, as far as how they portray themselves and interact with others on social media, and also with how they see others like them portrayed. I also wonder what having a digital identity means for the process of socialization into dominant US culture and the US education system. These sound like great research questions!
Kira – have you heard of/read this book? Some of the answers to your questions are in this book: https://nyupress.org/9781479837243/algorithms-of-oppression/
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