For Friday, please read Teju Cole’s “Rereading James Baldwin’s ‘Stranger in the Village‘”. In your response, please consider how Cole’s reading of the essay impacts your own interpretation of Baldwin’s ideas. Articulate this using at least one quote from Baldwin’s essay.
Also, please come to class with a list of 5 potential topics for you research paper. If you’ve already settled on one, think of possible back-ups or other ways of getting at a similar idea.
The article “Rereading James Baldwin’s Stranger in the village” written by Teju Cole led me to think twice about the main points that Baldwin brought up in the original essay. Cole tries to contest some of the views of Baldwin, from how a few of Baldwin’s quotes and beliefs technically underrated Black culture back in his time and at today’s time. It was stated in Baldwins’ “Stranger in the Village” essay that, “The most illiterate among them is related, in a way I am not, to Dante, Shakespeare”, and during then Africa had very little going for because of Europe’s conquests for colonies on the continent.However, Cole argued that the accomplishments from way back then in African civilizations were comparable but they were skimmed through or partially ignored in history, whether it be the accurate “bronze sculpting of the Ife” or “the egalitarian government of the Igbo” people. Cole also argues that Black culture has its own prominent figures further down the line as well that were heard almost everywhere, if not seen everywhere, such as Bob Marley, Martin Luther King Jr, or even Michael Jordan that people from today could easily relate to, its just the case that in Baldwin’s time these people weren’t yet prominent and shared globally. The key difference here was that during Baldwin’s stay in Switzerland music that had Black influence such as Jazz, Blues, and hip hop wasn’t played at social gatherings like today. Even though Baldwin saw cultural barriers between the Black and White Race, Teju Cole claims that both sides have visible culture relevance.
In “Rereading James Baldwin’s ‘Stranger in the Village”, Teju Cole shares his modern experience visiting the same Swiss village James Baldwin did. He also analyzes and discusses some of the points made by Baldwin in his essay. Cole’s reading of the essay is extremely helpful in terms of clarifying Baldwin’s ideas and bringing up his own as well. Cole begins with a short summary of Baldwin’s essay and paints an even clearer picture of how Baldwin was treated. He describes this part of Baldwin’s essay as bemused and sorrowful since it describes Baldwin as an inferior and inhuman. This in my interpretation, also goes over the qualities that come with being African American such as constantly being stared at and judged. Another idea that Cole goes over is how, “people are trapped in history, and history is trapped in them”. Cole doesn’t necessarily agree with this and goes on to explain how although equality doesn’t yet exist, African Americans are being integrated in to the culture of many whites. By saying this, Cole is implying that we are slowly removing ourselves from this “trap”. The most interesting clarification Cole makes is that Baldwin is “sensitive to his own sense of exclusion” from great world art. Baldwin explains this as, “I might search them in vain forever for any reflection of myself. I was an interloper; this was not my heritage.” Meaning that Baldwin is depressed over the fact that what he loves doesn’t love him back. Baldwin believes he is differentiated from great known artists because of his “heritage” or social role. Overall, Coles reading of the essay has made Baldwin’s ideas extremely clear and also offers a different perspective since he introduces his opinion on each concept as well.
In “Rereading James Baldwin’s ‘Stranger in the Village”, by Teji Cole, he explores James Baldwin’s essay, while at the place the essay was written about. He analyzed many differences that sixty years has changed this small village. One such change is the children on the streets sixty years ago who would scream “Neger! Neger!”, are no longer outdoors. Also, the village now has seen more black men, thus no longer curiously touch their hair or their skin. The author also being African American and black of skin color, placed himself in James Baldwin’s shoes, but in a more modern time period. He states how the village has now seen black men, but there were still gazes. He also states that the gazes could turn to stares, but the intent of the gaze was what mattered. Whether they had hostility, curiosity or mockery. Cole states, “Leukerbad gave Baldwin a way to think about white supremacy from its first principles. It was as though he found it in its simplest form there”. This quote connects to my previous analysis on how white men’s first thoughts in an area of blacks is superiority and conquering. When Cole brings up the quote from Baldwin’s essay, “the presence of the Negro has had on the American character”. This quote shows the impact black men have had on a much larger and advanced society. Baldwin also brings up how the villagers have rich ancestries, but his ancestry was “watching the conquerors arrive”. Cole being in Leukerbad in a more modern time sees the village differently than Baldwin, but both still see lingering similarities that were written by Baldwin. Though the village has advanced and seen more of the world, The village still has a long way to go as a community to accepting outside cultures, skin colors, and people.
After reading the interpretation of Teju Cole on “The Stranger in the Village” by James Baldwin, I see the article in a different light. For one, the notion of stares being directed wherever you are even if you have lived in the place for all your life is quite phenomenal. Cole describes that people always stare; it’s just how long they do it that’s the real meaning. Cole changes the perspective a bit, writing that changing times comes with different insights and views. Back then, in the 1950s, Baldwin was so focused on the idea of Africans being equal to whites that he did not see the increasing African achievements that would later sprout. But the change in perspective for me regarding both interpretations of “The Stranger in the Village” by Baldwin and Cole were the differences in how famous poets, writers, and philosophers would always be white and that Africans were not related to them at all. This is Baldwin’s explanation, while Cole believes in the opposite. He staunchly believes that just a difference in color does not mean one is not related to these great people. Through knowledge and identity, one can be related to anyone they want to be. “People are trapped in history…” indicates how people tend to view the way that their families and ancestors viewed a group of people. If Africans were viewed as subpar to that of whites, the notion, although not as radical from before, stays with the person unless he or she decides to change his or her perspective. History can trap one’s perception of another but it can also be changed by the handful of people who want change. In the end, we are all humans and are related to each other regardless of color.
I find it surprising how Teju Cole dissects the text “Stranger in The Village” by James Baldwin. Teju Cole is himself a black man, so he can judge the text in the way he did. However if this article “Black Body: Rereading of Stranger in The Village” was written by a white person this would be a form of racism. The quote that I found interesting was “But the village has grown considerably since his visits, more than sixty years ago. They’ve seen blacks now; I wasn’t a remarkable sight…There are glances in Zurich, where I am spending the summer, and there are glances in New York City, which has been my home for fourteen years. There are glances all over Europe and in India, and anywhere I go outside Africa. The test is how long the glances last, whether they become stares.” This quote shows how just because someone is black and gets glances does not mean this is racism. Because if that is true then everyone is racist everyone glances at each other.
The perspective that Teju Cole offers a black man himself is much needed to fully understand “Stranger in The VIllage.” I am not black so I have no idea if everything James Baldwin stated in his essay is true. However Teju Cole was able to fill in the missing holes that “Stranger in The Village” had through Teju’s experience going into the swiss village himself. The Swiss village from the time James Baldwin wrote his essay has changed a lot. Teju made it seem as if they were not a racist town because they were now accustomed to blacks. This article makes me realize that I cannot believe everything I read especially since “Stranger in The Village” was written years ago it may not be relevant to today.
Throughout the article “Rereading James Baldwin’s Stranger in the village” by Teju Cole, Teju Cole discusses the original essay by Baldwin based on his experiences in the small Swiss village. Teju Cole is also a black man, and he points out some differences between the village in about 60 years ago and now. When he is in the village, there are a lot foreign visitors, from England, Italy, France, and etc, the village is becoming famous and bustling. No one in the village is surprising about his skin color; they are used to see black men now. Baldwin says that “I knew that they did not m-ean to be unkind, and I know it now; it is necessary, nevertheless, for me to repeat this to myself each time that I walk out of the chalet. The children who shout Neger! have no way of knowing the echoes this sound raises in me.” In the essay, but Teju Cole sees another side of the village. He states that “Leukerbad has changed, but in which way? There were, in fact, no bands of children on the street, and few children anywhere at all.” The kids now are like other kids all over the world, they are playing video games or computers at home. So we can see that the society is improving now, 60 years ago and now have lots of differences. And throughout the last paragraph of the article, he is trying to remind people don’t trust what you see before you make any decisions, we should know the story behind.
“[James Baldwin] is angry and prophetic, writing with a hard clarity and carried along by a precipitous eloquence.”
Teju Cole talks about how in Baldwin’s “Stranger in the Village” the first emotions upon the swiss village were that of great privilege. That the white villagers were astonished to see a black man for the first time, as he described it. However, reading “Stranger in the Village” for the first time, I knew the true underlying reason as to why they were staring at him, and it was not due to the privilege of Baldwin being able to travel. Baldwin begins his recount with, I feel, is a false air of arrogance. He deems his status as a writer in New York evidence enough of his superiority over the villagers, however it seems as though his confidence deflates, and he is left with the feeling of acceptance. This does take place in the 1950s, a time where people of color had to face a lot of struggles and the rise of the civil war. He comes to the long awaited conclusion that they see him as inferior and it is because of his skin color. Like Cole said, after Baldwin mentions the racial situation in America, he begins to take on a more vexed tone, irritation laced in his writing.
Teju Cole gives a modern, more relatable interpretation of Baldwin’s words, “People are trapped in history, and history is trapped in them.” As reflected on his trip to the village, Cole recognized that altough he was the only black person at the pizzeria, there were also many other foreigners. In Baldwin’s times, this event would’ve caused a noticeable reaction from the crowd at the pizzeria as in those times the native residents reacted in a way that was reflective of their knowledge and history with black people. There reactions were based off of what little they knew of black people. Baldwin’s experience as a stranger in this white village was also based off of how much he knew of white people and white culture; indeed it was much more than what the villagers knew of black people. However, both the villagers and Baldwin were acting off of what history, what information they knew of each other. In effect,”[they were] trapped in history, and history [was] trapped in them.” During Cole’s dinner at the pizzeria, people did stare at him. He could’ve easily interpreted those stares the way in which Baldwin did but the history wasn’t the same. Teju Cole wasn’t trapped in the same history as Baldwin because so much had happened between these two intervals. Black culture was more explored and understood by a greater number of people, the views of the 50s were, to an extent, different from those of the 21st Century. Where does this leave us? Well, the history that we were trapped in 60 years ago has been altered and will forever be altered, yet that glance that we are all victims of will never cease to exist.
In “Rereading James Baldwin’s ‘Stranger in the Village”, Teju Cole revisits Baldwin’s experience in the Swiss village he went to. He discusses that there was often a lot of staring and judging and this was attributed to the Swiss people never really traveling the world and being exposed to other people and races like you are in New York. The main point of this analysis I think is embodied when Cole says that, “It takes whites a while to understand it; it takes non-black people of color a while to understand it; and it takes some blacks, a while to understand it.” It’s pretty clear that Cole doesn’t think that people are blatantly trying to be racist and trying to essentially “play pretend” that racism isn’t a thing in this day and age. He himself admits that it is hard to fully grasp the topic, whether you are white, a person of color, or even black. It’s a hard concept to come to terms with. This, then brings me to the point where Baldwin said “My father forgave the white world (which he described as heathen) for having saddled him with a Christ in whom, to judge at least from their treatment of him, they themselves no longer believed.” In this statement, Baldwin is describing how the father let go of the fact that he was converted, but Baldwin does not forgive them for their actions and how they treated him as if he wasn’t human. Cole’s point further defines the way Baldwin felt towards race and that history played a big part to the Swiss people being so insensitive. Cole may have felt differently about this example but did add on that there was progress being made in the form of artists and music, and that along with the rest of his point of view helped distinguish Baldwin’s perspective even more clearly.
After reading Teju Cole’s “Rereading James Baldwin’s ‘Stranger in the Village’”, I realized the longevity of Baldwin’s piece and how it could be applied to the racism that is occurring in our society today. One part of Cole’s piece that stood out to me the most was when he wrote, “To be a stranger is to be looked at, but to be black is to be looked especially.” This relates extensively when Baldwin arrives in the village and he is stared at by all the villagers. And it is no normal stare because strangers come to the village constantly, but the stare that they give him is that of his race. Since, these people have no affiliation or connection with African Americans, they never saw a black person so when they did they stared becoming racist towards Baldwin. This was evident when Baldwin stated, “In all of this, in which it must be conceded there was the charm of genuine wonder and in which there was certainly no element of intentional unkindness, there was yet no suggestion that I was human: I was simply a living wonder.” As a result, we could compare these two statements and relate them that in the setting where Baldwin was at the time, these stares were not sates of disapproval nor hatred, but of disbelief and wonder that there are people so different from them. However, I believe that in this time period, many of these stares could be considered hateful and spiteful especially considering the disunity that our country is facing right now through all the current events. This is evident when Cole brings up how the police started arresting people who danced in subways, and this was controversial since most of these people are African American trying to make some spare change. Overall, after reading Cole’s rereading, I have found how Baldwin’s experience causes many realizations even in today’s times that racism is still alive, and that it is something that is very difficult to destroy considering that white supremacy has governed this country for many years. As a result, many people spread these acts of hatred and racism in order to “save” the country in a white supremacist point of view.
When reading articled and essays, you must first understand the point of view and time period of the author. In Teju Cole’s “Rereading James Baldwin’s ‘Stranger in the Village””. In this article, Cole took “Three trains, a bus, and a short stroll, all of it through beautiful country, and then we reached Leukerbad in darkness. So Leukerbad, not far in terms of absolute distance, was not all that easy to get to. August 2, 2014: it was James Baldwin’s birthday. Were he alive, he would be turning ninety.” It explains how Cole is going back to the same Swiss village that Baldwin stayed 60 years ago. He’s coming what change from today to Baldwin’s time where he was the only African American in an all white village. It really goes to show you how time and culture change. At first I had to step back and understand the two era of this village. Baldwin describes it as racism is everywhere and it would never change however Cole shows us that people come and things change. “Baldwin, who was depressed and distracted at the time, went, and the village (which is also called Loèche-les-Bains) proved to be a refuge for him. His first trip was in the summer, and lasted two weeks. Then he returned, to his own surprise, for two more winters.” This is a very interesting detail provided by Cole, as now you wonder is this affected his judgment, and his journey was an escape. “(Baldwin: “Nothing that has happened to me since equals the power and the glory that I sometimes felt when, in the middle of a sermon, I knew that I was somehow, by some miracle, really carrying, as they said, ‘the Word’—when the church and I were one”); and I, too, left the church; and I call New York home even when not living there; and feel myself in all places, from New York City to rural Switzerland, the custodian of a black body, and have to find the language for all of what that means to me and to the people who look at me. The ancestor had briefly taken possession of the descendant. It was a moment of identification, and in the days that followed that moment was a guide” Although there is more diversity in culture and race in the village, there is one point that Cole make is that even society has made a lot of progress since the 1950s, there is one thing that will never change is that social inequality especially with African Americans, as history continues to affect the lives of many minorities.
In “Rereading James Baldwin’s ‘Stranger in the Village”, Teju Cole analyzes the works of James Baldwin. One thing that I found very interesting is the way that he relates Baldwin’s work from the fifties to today, in the 21st century. Even before reading this article, the situation with the treatment of blacks and people of color has not changed since the fifties. As Cole says, ” This fantasy about the disposability of black life is a constant in American history”. I feel that this quote plays a large role in how blacks and people of color are treated in this country. An example of this is, not too long ago, there were incidents of white supremacy groups attacking blacks in the southern states. Furthermore, I found it satisfying when he addresses the point of the New York City police department specifically targeting blacks, just because of their race. While, for the press, they attempted to justify their unlawful actions, people such as Cole and Baldwin are able to see through the bureaucracy to the real issue. An example that is very similar to this was the concept of stop-and-frisk. This policy was enforced by the Bloomberg administration to cut down crime. However, it was found that police officers were specifically targetting blacks and people of color. While the problem of racism in America is known now, the solution is not so simple. As Baldwin states, “People are trapped in history, and history is trapped in them”. As long as there are people that have these racial views of blacks and people of color, they will imprint these ideas onto their children and their children’s’ children and so on. This process is ever going but, having these views and acting upon them with violence are two completely different topics.
In “Rereading James Baldwin’s “Stranger in the Village” by Teju Cole, he offers a new opinion about the experiences that Baldwin had in the small Swiss village. One thing that stood out to me was how he compared the staring of the Swiss natives of the village when Baldwin was there to how it applied when he was there. One of his strongest points was that Baldwin visited this town over 50 years ago and times have changed drastically since then. Cole states “But it is also true that the little pieces of history move around at a tremendous speed, settling with a not-always-clear logic, and rarely settling for long.” He is referring to Baldwin’s phrase of people being “trapped” in their history. I think what Cole is trying to get at is that the people of this town have seen many new things since Baldwin and that their lives and ideals have changed since then. He says that the kids who called Baldwin a “neger” are no longer around and instead they are stuck in today’s technological world. This is extremely important to take note of because even today when people come from a certain background that has its ideals and beliefs, they still have access to millions of other people via the internet. All the info that is accessible to people nowadays allows them to shape their ideas and beliefs differently form how it was 50 years ago. He states this by using an example of music in modern day Switzerland. He states that even though there might not be that many black people in the village they are obviously influenced by the culture because of the music playing at the clubs like Drake and Beyonce. He also adds how Baldwin used to have to bring his records with him in a case and that’s far more complicated than today’s world with music on every mobile device. He said that he uses music to create his own atmosphere and weather and that may be why Baldwin’s experience in the village was so negative. The village was obviously not exposed to any music that had black influence in it at the time of Baldwin’s arrival, but now they even had Whitney Houston playing at the restaurant. Basically what Cole is saying is that times have changed and the presence of the internet and new technology has connected the world much differently than how it was with Baldwin. Even though some of what Baldwin said is still true and relevant in our society today, Cole definitely opened up a new perspective for me to look at.
After reading “Rereading James Baldwin’s “Stranger in the Village” by Teju Cole she opened up my mind to what the passage was truly about. I will be honest and say I did not fully understand what the original passage was talking about. But by reading her article and the way she made comparison I was able to draw my own understanding of what “Stranger in the Village” was about. It was interesting to me about how she was comparing the village in the 60’s to the village now and there were no parallels. I feel with this one article it was a combination of all the articles and the messages they were saying before. A combination of the effect of technology, the ideals in braindead megaphone, and the ideals in “Stranger in the Village” where shown through this one passage. By noticing how the village evolved over time she blames it on technology stating that there is nowhere that is truly isolated now. The one quote in this passage that resonated with me is the part in which she talks about the stares and how there is a type of “implicit” racism/judging characteristic that is still going on with these village people. A critical point of this article is when she judges Baldwin for saying that the black people simply just watched as they got “conquered” being his only heritage/lineage to look back on. Cole states that she has a proud black lineage that she will not “turn her back” on.