In a clip following the death of George Floyd, Trevor Noah describes what he believes to be the social contract between a government and its people.  The purpose of such a contract is to define the obligations that a government has to its people and vice versa.  A full citizen is someone who is served by the government in the ways outlined in the social contract.  It is through this idea that Noah attempts to explain and justify the rioting and looting that occurred in the wake of Floyd’s death.  Floyd was killed by police officers, who are an extension of the government and are assigned to protect the people.  The government was responsible for killing one of its constituents, and therefore the social contract between people and government has been voided.  For that reason, Noah argues that the rioting is justified since the social contract preventing it in the first place is no longer relevant.  

In the documentary, “I Am Not Your Negro”, James Baldwin seeks to illustrate the nature of relations between white people and black people in America.  It is done through, among many factors, Baldwin’s personal experiences and clips from films and television programs that detail these complex relations.  Throughout the documentary, Baldwin references speeches from and stories about Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, and Medgar Evans.  I believe that Baldwin chose to center the documentary around these three men because they were all killed for fighting for equality.  At the start of the film, Baldwin reminds viewers that neither man lived to be 40 years old.  Despite having different means of achieving their goals, they all shared the same goal.  No matter how violent or peaceful, no form of protest was acceptable to white Americans.  

From the film, I take away the central idea that White Americans not only wanted to not be hated by African Americans but also to not change their thinking or society.  Baldwin demonstrates this throughout the film.  One clip from a movie from the Civil Rights Movement era shows two men, one white and one black, who presumably escaped from prison handcuffed together.  Although they despised each other, they still worked together to escape to freedom.  When attempting to jump onto a moving train, the black man gets on the train with ease.  Then he attempts to help the white man get on.  The white man struggled to do so and when it became clear he was not going to jump on, the black man jumped off, unwilling to leave him behind.  Baldwin describes this as the moment White Americans needed to see to not feel hated by African Americans.  Likewise, he criticizes this scene, alluding to the reality that the white man likely would not have done the same.  In another scene, Baldwin is being interviewed by a white “scholar” who challenges the lens through which African Americans view society.  The white scholar asks since both Baldwin and himself have more in common with people in their respective professions than they do with members of their own race who are not in the same profession, that why does race has to be at the forefront of Baldwin’s mind.  Baldwin responds that the society in which African Americans live instills fear in them.  When African Americans have to fear the world around them because of their race, there are hardly any other ways of viewing society.  Both scenes demonstrate the difficulty white people have confronting the past, and to a large extent, the present.