“And I remember with pain the tears which my hand or your grandmother’s hand so easily wiped away, but no one’s hand can wipe away those tears he sheds invisibly today which one hears in his laughter and in his speech and in his songs.”
It’s what hits closest to home that we, as humans, wish most to protect. In, “Letter to My Nephew,” by James Baldwin, all of the pain, the hope, the worry, the strength that has built up through his own struggle and experience comes out and works beautifully into a heartfelt piece of advice that Baldwin wanted to pass on to his young, developing, still open-hearted nephew. You can tell solely by his use of words how much thought and emotion is poured into effort. He warns and reminds his nephew of all the trouble he and people alike will always have to go through because of the stigmas and the stereotypes and the fear and whatnot that has built over years and years prior to his birth to bring immediate hatred towards his entire race. Baldwin pleads with his nephew, exclaiming “please try to remember that what they believe, as well as what they do and cause you to endure, does not testify to your inferiority, but to their inhumanity and fear.” He encourages a sense of faith and optimism instead of guilt and revenge against all the bad that could turn him so. What gets me the most is the forgiving nature that Baldwin seems to carry. Despite all he has witnessed and been through, he still believes that the only way to bring the world back to good is to preach love and acceptance. He has a light quality to him, one that can only be known by what he’s been through himself yet he still knows passion and respect and tenderness for the people who have shown him so wrong. I feel it’s this kind of thinking that gets the world moving to a better place. It’s this kind of mentality that keeps us sane while everyone around us may not be, and it’s this kind of heart that knows how to love and be loved in a world that says otherwise. It’s individuals like Baldwin, intelligent, compassionate, still so deeply engrained with warmth in a cold society that can really make a change. He makes me feel this sort of way, and honored to be able to have read his innermost thoughts. It’s really something.
Emily Weiss
02.18.2016