Regarding the film, In the Heat of the Night, Baldwin states on page 64: “It is impossible to accept the premise of the story, a premise based on the profound American misunderstanding of the nature of the hatred between [B]lack and white.” How does the author understand this hatred? What do you think of this point of view?
In reading this book and considering Baldwin’s fear and hatred of white people, especially as a young child, I couldn’t help thinking about transgenerational trauma. Not only were Baldwin’s perceptions formed by his own experiences, but he carried with him the experiences of those who came before him, both living and long passed.
Baldwin also tells us on the same page that the root of white man’s hatred is terror…and the root of black man’s hatred is rage.
I agree with both Patricia and Janet. But I don’t know the personal experiences of Baldwin. I can’t imagine they were positive in his dealiings with most white people. And that also doesn’t account for the things his parents told him, or warned him about. We’ve recently heard that black boys get “the talk” about how to behave with white people and police in particular. So I wonder about those experinces- and what was the final occurance that drove him to leave the US.