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Dark Days
'So the club rose, the blood came down, and his bitterness and his anguish and his guilt were compounded'
Drawing on Baldwin's own experiences of prejudice in an America violently divided by race, these searing essays blend the intensely personal with the political to envisage a better world.
Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.
Drawing on Baldwin's own experiences of prejudice in an America violently divided by race, these searing essays blend the intensely personal with the political to envisage a better world.
Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.
50 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2018
152 people are currently reading
8816 people want to read
About the author
James Baldwin
386 books16.9k followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Works of American writer James Arthur Baldwin, outspoken critic of racism, include Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), a novel, and Notes of a Native Son (1955), a collection of essays.
James Arthur Baldwin authored plays and poems in society.
He came as the eldest of nine children; his stepfather served as a minister. At 14 years of age in 1938, Baldwin preached at the small fireside Pentecostal church in Harlem. From religion in the early 1940s, he transferred his faith to literature with the still evident impassioned cadences of black churches. From 1948, Baldwin made his home primarily in the south of France but often returned to the United States of America to lecture or to teach.
In his Giovanni's Room, a white American expatriate must come to terms with his homosexuality. In 1957, he began spending half of each year in city of New York.
James Baldwin offered a vital literary voice during the era of civil rights activism in the 1950s and 1960s.
He first partially autobiographically accounted his youth. His influential Nobody Knows My Name and The Fire Next Time informed a large white audience. Another Country talks about gay sexual tensions among intellectuals of New York. Segments of the black nationalist community savaged his gay themes. Eldridge Cleaver of the Black Panthers stated the Baldwin displayed an "agonizing, total hatred of blacks." People produced Blues for Mister Charlie , play of Baldwin, in 1964. Huey Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, defended Baldwin.
Going to Meet the Man and Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone provided powerful descriptions. He as an openly gay man increasingly in condemned discrimination against lesbian persons.
From stomach cancer, Baldwin died in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. People buried his body at the Ferncliff cemetery in Hartsdale near city of New York.
Works of American writer James Arthur Baldwin, outspoken critic of racism, include Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), a novel, and Notes of a Native Son (1955), a collection of essays.
James Arthur Baldwin authored plays and poems in society.
He came as the eldest of nine children; his stepfather served as a minister. At 14 years of age in 1938, Baldwin preached at the small fireside Pentecostal church in Harlem. From religion in the early 1940s, he transferred his faith to literature with the still evident impassioned cadences of black churches. From 1948, Baldwin made his home primarily in the south of France but often returned to the United States of America to lecture or to teach.
In his Giovanni's Room, a white American expatriate must come to terms with his homosexuality. In 1957, he began spending half of each year in city of New York.
James Baldwin offered a vital literary voice during the era of civil rights activism in the 1950s and 1960s.
He first partially autobiographically accounted his youth. His influential Nobody Knows My Name and The Fire Next Time informed a large white audience. Another Country talks about gay sexual tensions among intellectuals of New York. Segments of the black nationalist community savaged his gay themes. Eldridge Cleaver of the Black Panthers stated the Baldwin displayed an "agonizing, total hatred of blacks." People produced Blues for Mister Charlie , play of Baldwin, in 1964. Huey Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, defended Baldwin.
Going to Meet the Man and Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone provided powerful descriptions. He as an openly gay man increasingly in condemned discrimination against lesbian persons.
From stomach cancer, Baldwin died in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. People buried his body at the Ferncliff cemetery in Hartsdale near city of New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 594 reviews
August 31, 2020
If you want to understand racism in America, read Baldwin!
If you want to understand the system that kills equality within its democratic institutions, listen to what he has to say about education.
If you want to truly, deeply, honestly hear how racism breaks people before they even have a chance to grow up and develop dreams, read Baldwin.
And then close your eyes, and add what he writes about being homosexual in this world. For all those who glibly think "we have improved", think about how to define "we" in this sentence. And then ask yourselves: "Is it good enough?"
Baldwin is the compassionate and eloquent conscience of the world as a colourful rainbow to be shared by all. When he is angry, it is a rage of empathy and justice. When he is sad, it is for the world he can imagine but not participate in, being outside the norms of exclusion that have been cultivated to treat him as a less valued member of society. As he puts it in one paragraph: imagine a boy who understands that he was born to be despised. Forever.
The miracle is that there are people who manage to rise above the hopelessness and who demand the right to get an education. Who rise above the fear and find the courage to speak up for humanity.
The vicious circle of shame projection has to be broken at some point. Baldwin is right there, at the epicentre. And it hurts.
If you want to understand the system that kills equality within its democratic institutions, listen to what he has to say about education.
If you want to truly, deeply, honestly hear how racism breaks people before they even have a chance to grow up and develop dreams, read Baldwin.
And then close your eyes, and add what he writes about being homosexual in this world. For all those who glibly think "we have improved", think about how to define "we" in this sentence. And then ask yourselves: "Is it good enough?"
Baldwin is the compassionate and eloquent conscience of the world as a colourful rainbow to be shared by all. When he is angry, it is a rage of empathy and justice. When he is sad, it is for the world he can imagine but not participate in, being outside the norms of exclusion that have been cultivated to treat him as a less valued member of society. As he puts it in one paragraph: imagine a boy who understands that he was born to be despised. Forever.
The miracle is that there are people who manage to rise above the hopelessness and who demand the right to get an education. Who rise above the fear and find the courage to speak up for humanity.
The vicious circle of shame projection has to be broken at some point. Baldwin is right there, at the epicentre. And it hurts.
December 14, 2018
YES YES YES! Angry Baldwin is my favorite Baldwin, and boy, was he angry in this. I'm pretty skeptical when it comes to Penguin's Mini Modern Classics series because the majority of its selection seems half-assed and really not well thought through; but this selection of Baldwin's essays delivered on all the right fronts.
Dark Days combines three essays written by Baldwin on the topic of race relations in the United States of America. The White Man's Guilt (1965) was written amidst the Civil Rights era and illustrates Baldwin's brutal account on the myth of colour-blindness. Dark Days (1980) and The Price of the Ticket (1985) are two of his later essays in which he looks back on the sacrifices Black people made in their struggle for freedom and equality and all the hardships they had to endure.
But Baldwin soon discovered the line which separates a witness from an actor. Baldwin did not have to deal with the criminal state of Mississippi, hour by hour and day by day, to say nothing of night after night. He did not have to sweat cold sweat after decisions involving hundreds and thousands of lives. He was not responsible for raising money, for deciding how to use it. He was not responsible for strategy controlling prayer meetings, marches, petitions, voting registration drives. He saw the sheriffs, the deputies, the storm troopers more or less in passing. He was never in town to stay. This was sometimes hard on his morale, but he had to accept as time wore on, that part of his responsibility – as a witness – was to move as largely and freely as possible, to write the story, and to get it out.
But Baldwin admits that he, like most parents, underestimated the children. All they can do, all they have learned by watching their elders, and defining the world and the future in their own terms.
The Price of the Ticket is a very personal account on how Baldwin tried to navigate through a world who believed itself to be white (and make a career as a writer in that world). He details the sheer impossibility of that task since “white people are not white: part of the price of the white ticket is to delude themselves into believing that they are.” He asks himself: How can I be expected to pledge allegiance to a flag which had pledged no allegiance to you? Once more, it becomes apparent of how timely Baldwin thoughts and arguments are, in a day and age where NFL players are reprimanded for kneeling during the American national anthem.
Similarly to his memoir, Go Tell It On the Mountain, he also attempts to reprocess his past and his fallout with his father and the Christian Church. How he was “exiled” from the community he grew up in for choosing the path to become a writer, and not a preacher.
As in his other work, Baldwin stands by his point that white people define their “whiteness” by “their absence of blackness”. The white man needs the Black man to define himself. So white people are “perpetually defending themselves against charges which one, disagreeable mirror though one may be, has not, really, for the moment, made.” And how have white people defended themselves and their identities through history. Baldwin’s short answer doesn’t need an explanation: “The record is there for all to read.” And what a bloody record it is. Thank you, James!
Dark Days combines three essays written by Baldwin on the topic of race relations in the United States of America. The White Man's Guilt (1965) was written amidst the Civil Rights era and illustrates Baldwin's brutal account on the myth of colour-blindness. Dark Days (1980) and The Price of the Ticket (1985) are two of his later essays in which he looks back on the sacrifices Black people made in their struggle for freedom and equality and all the hardships they had to endure.
But Baldwin soon discovered the line which separates a witness from an actor. Baldwin did not have to deal with the criminal state of Mississippi, hour by hour and day by day, to say nothing of night after night. He did not have to sweat cold sweat after decisions involving hundreds and thousands of lives. He was not responsible for raising money, for deciding how to use it. He was not responsible for strategy controlling prayer meetings, marches, petitions, voting registration drives. He saw the sheriffs, the deputies, the storm troopers more or less in passing. He was never in town to stay. This was sometimes hard on his morale, but he had to accept as time wore on, that part of his responsibility – as a witness – was to move as largely and freely as possible, to write the story, and to get it out.
To be black was to confront, and to be forced to alter, a condition forged in history. To be white was to be forced to digest a delusion called white supremacy. […] It is hardly possible for anyone who thinks of himself as white to know what a black person is talking about at all.In the essay Dark Days, Baldwin details in brutal honesty the emotional, social and educational disconnect between Black and white people of his day. Just like Black poet Langston Hughes, he asks himself what happens to a dream deferred? Do we reap what we sow (like our elders would like us to believe)? Baldwin hammers home his point of how influential adults (parents, teachers, neighbors) are in the formative years of children. How these people to whom we look up to set the standard of what we think possible in the world. He’s thankful that most of his Black teachers were survivors of the Harlem Renaissance and thus wanted their Black students to strive and become anything they wanted to be.
The question of color was but another detail somewhere between being six feet tall and being six feet under. In the long meantime, everything was up to me.But Baldwin didn’t let himself be swayed by false pretences, he knew that the educational system he had grown up in was “in short, designed to destroy the black child.” Furthermore: “It is an extraordinary achievement to be trapped in the dungeon of color and to dare shake down its walls and to step out of it, leaving the jailhouse keeper in the rubble.” Baldwin echoes what Black parents keep telling their children up to this day: you have to work twice as hard, and it will probably take you twice as long to get where you want be in life.
But Baldwin admits that he, like most parents, underestimated the children. All they can do, all they have learned by watching their elders, and defining the world and the future in their own terms.
The Price of the Ticket is a very personal account on how Baldwin tried to navigate through a world who believed itself to be white (and make a career as a writer in that world). He details the sheer impossibility of that task since “white people are not white: part of the price of the white ticket is to delude themselves into believing that they are.” He asks himself: How can I be expected to pledge allegiance to a flag which had pledged no allegiance to you? Once more, it becomes apparent of how timely Baldwin thoughts and arguments are, in a day and age where NFL players are reprimanded for kneeling during the American national anthem.
Similarly to his memoir, Go Tell It On the Mountain, he also attempts to reprocess his past and his fallout with his father and the Christian Church. How he was “exiled” from the community he grew up in for choosing the path to become a writer, and not a preacher.
My black burden has not, however, been made lighter in the sixty years since my birth or the nearly forty years since the first essay in this collection was published and my joy, therefore, as concerns the immense strides made by white people is, to say the least, restrained.In The White Man’s Guilt, Baldwin wonders what white America talks about with one another, since they never seem to have much to say to him. In the previous essay, he detailed in a very raw fashion the mob mentality that is still prevalent in America today (“It does not demand a mass conversion to persuade a mob to lynch a nigger or stone a Jew or mutilate a sexual heretic. It demands no conversion at all: in the very same way that the act demands no courage at all.”), so what does this mob do and think when they are left on their own?
As in his other work, Baldwin stands by his point that white people define their “whiteness” by “their absence of blackness”. The white man needs the Black man to define himself. So white people are “perpetually defending themselves against charges which one, disagreeable mirror though one may be, has not, really, for the moment, made.” And how have white people defended themselves and their identities through history. Baldwin’s short answer doesn’t need an explanation: “The record is there for all to read.” And what a bloody record it is. Thank you, James!
September 3, 2019
This was sent to me so that I could familiarise myself with this authors work.
This is short. A very short read holding three essays by him going over and past the prejudice and racism of America.
It made for very interesting reading.
Also shows how the past influences the present.
This is short. A very short read holding three essays by him going over and past the prejudice and racism of America.
It made for very interesting reading.
Also shows how the past influences the present.
Read
March 25, 2020
April 25, 2018
It is a cliche to state that these essays speak to our current time in a way that transcends history, so I won't. Instead I will say that Baldwin's voice is an unmistakable one: something firm, thoughtful, and lyrical. That voice is the spine of these three essays, separated by decades but feel in no other sense disconnected. Pull out a sentence, consider them as a collection, or place them in the body of his work and they respond in the same intelligent and poignant way, illuminating the lived experience of racism with vivid humanity.
December 22, 2020
Only fifty pages of the Master?!?! Absolutely shocking.
June 15, 2021
it's terrifying to see how relevant it still is in today's world, i can't wait to read more of baldwin's work
February 4, 2019
This was my first time reading any of Baldwin’s work and my, was he angry in this text. Rightfully so, and he channels this by talking about his own experiences a black man living and growing up in America. There’s a clear us vs them distinguished in the text, but it’s not him that has distilled that there is a separation between the two skin colours. It’s racism. He stressed the importance of education and love. He talks about the various institutes that are racist – even the church. He talks about whether white supremacists want or don’t want freedom for themselves or for others. He presented an interesting black problem: that you’re either beyond redemption or in need of saving and I’m not sure how I felt about his statement, but it has certainly given me plenty to think about. I loved when he talked about aspiring to be equal and what that means. I liked what he said about ‘white guilt.’ There is basically so much to talk about in this single, short essay. I could spend ages breaking it down for you. But if you liked Americanah and learned from that book, I’d highly recommend Dark Days.
This review can originally be found on Olivia's Catastrophe: https://oliviascatastrophe.com/2019/0...
This review can originally be found on Olivia's Catastrophe: https://oliviascatastrophe.com/2019/0...
December 18, 2024
i hope i don't sound ridiculous when i say this but some parts legitimately made me tear up with emotion. james baldwin's words are just other-worldly.
January 31, 2021
"History, as nearly no one seems to know, is not merely something to be read. And it does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past. In the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do. It could scarcely be otherwise, since it is the history that we owe our frames of reference, our identities, and our aspirations. And it is with great pain and terror that one begins to realise this. 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 recreate 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."
This short volume collected some of James Baldwin's harrowing and empowering words, concerning the racial prejudice he has experienced in America.
Baldwin ensures his readers understand the suffering and degradation at the hands of racist individuals, systems, and ideologies and spares them none of the details or the emotion. After all, he hasn't been spared any of it. This entire volume might have contained just 50 short pages but they were some of the most important and well-penned I have ever read. It hurts to think about just why they were a necessary creation in the first place, though.
This short volume collected some of James Baldwin's harrowing and empowering words, concerning the racial prejudice he has experienced in America.
Baldwin ensures his readers understand the suffering and degradation at the hands of racist individuals, systems, and ideologies and spares them none of the details or the emotion. After all, he hasn't been spared any of it. This entire volume might have contained just 50 short pages but they were some of the most important and well-penned I have ever read. It hurts to think about just why they were a necessary creation in the first place, though.
April 6, 2019
"One realizes later that there is no one to outwit but oneself."
Great and quick introduction to Baldwin's work. His three essays found in this Penguin modern classics mini edition are as relevant and importand as they were when they were first published, one in '65. and the other two in the 80's. This only shows that society has changed very little, definitely less then we (are made to) believe.
Great and quick introduction to Baldwin's work. His three essays found in this Penguin modern classics mini edition are as relevant and importand as they were when they were first published, one in '65. and the other two in the 80's. This only shows that society has changed very little, definitely less then we (are made to) believe.
March 13, 2018
It is haunting that in 2018 this could have been written last week.
August 10, 2019
”History, as nearly no one seems to know, is not merely something to be read. And it does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past. In the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do. It could scarcely be otherwise, since it is the history that we owe our frames of reference, our identities, and our aspirations. And it is with great pain and terror that one begins to realise this. 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 recreate 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.”
Impressive and humbling.
Impressive and humbling.
March 10, 2024
Have you ever eaten wasabi thinking it’s mushy peas? Your comfort zone flies out of the window and you're faced with reality. No amount of pretending or denial can save you in such an unpredictable moment. Reading this was a truly necessary and humbling experience.
"Is this the first step in unpinning the butterfly?"
"Is this the first step in unpinning the butterfly?"
June 17, 2020
all the stars. a must read if I ever saw one!
May 10, 2022
In carticica asta sunt adunate trei eseuri ale lui James Baldwin si anume Dark Days, The Price of the Ticket si The White Man's Guilt. Fiecare dintre ele trateaza diferite greutati pe care le intampini ca om de culoare in SUA, in special legate de rasism.
Dark Days este despre copilaria lui, ce a prins putin din marea depresiune si al doilea razboi mondial, disparitati aplicate de legislatie si foarte revelator, o strategie a albilor de a pune in carca celor de culoare si alte lucruri:
"Whites, thinking 'If you can't beat them, stone tem' dumped drugs into the ghetto, and what had once been a community began to fragment." - nu m-am gandit niciodata la asa ceva, dar poate fi o solutie de genul divide-et-impera a suprematiei albe.
The Price of the Ticket este despre nevoia de atasament: "I needed love so badly that I could as easily have been hit with a needle as persuaded to share a joint of marijuana. And, in fact, Beauford and the others let me smoke with them from time to time.". Inca un fragment despre cat de dislocate se simteau persoanele de culoare atunci: "Treason draws its energy from the conscious, delierate betrayal of a trust - as we were not trusted, we could not betray. And we did not wish to be traitors. We wished to be citizens".
Rasismul ce era atunci mai este prezent si azi, din pacate, atat in America, dar si in Romania, in privinta romilor. Trebuie sa avem mai multe politici publice care sa ii ajute si sa le aduca reparatii. Mai zice Baldwin asa: "But I am really saying something very simple. The will of the people, or the State, is revealed by the State's institutions. There was not, then, nor is there, now, a single American institution which is not a racist institution. And racist institutions - the unions, for the example, the Church for another, and the Army - or the military for yet another, are meant to keep the n**r in his place."
Legat de ultimul eseu, The White Man's Guilt, Baldwin zice ca de cele mai multe ori, oamenii vorbesc cu totul diferit in prezenta celor de culoare: "I wonder this because they do not, after all, seem to find very much to say to me, and I concluded long ago that they found the color of my skin inhibitory. This color seems to operate as a most disagreeable mirror, and a great deal of one's energy is expended in reassuring the white Americans that they do not see what they see."
Din fericire, Black Button Books a tradus deja doua carti si urmeaza cu siguranta sa le citesc candva in viitorul apropiat. O recomand si pe Bell Hooks in aceeasi nota.
Dark Days este despre copilaria lui, ce a prins putin din marea depresiune si al doilea razboi mondial, disparitati aplicate de legislatie si foarte revelator, o strategie a albilor de a pune in carca celor de culoare si alte lucruri:
"Whites, thinking 'If you can't beat them, stone tem' dumped drugs into the ghetto, and what had once been a community began to fragment." - nu m-am gandit niciodata la asa ceva, dar poate fi o solutie de genul divide-et-impera a suprematiei albe.
The Price of the Ticket este despre nevoia de atasament: "I needed love so badly that I could as easily have been hit with a needle as persuaded to share a joint of marijuana. And, in fact, Beauford and the others let me smoke with them from time to time.". Inca un fragment despre cat de dislocate se simteau persoanele de culoare atunci: "Treason draws its energy from the conscious, delierate betrayal of a trust - as we were not trusted, we could not betray. And we did not wish to be traitors. We wished to be citizens".
Rasismul ce era atunci mai este prezent si azi, din pacate, atat in America, dar si in Romania, in privinta romilor. Trebuie sa avem mai multe politici publice care sa ii ajute si sa le aduca reparatii. Mai zice Baldwin asa: "But I am really saying something very simple. The will of the people, or the State, is revealed by the State's institutions. There was not, then, nor is there, now, a single American institution which is not a racist institution. And racist institutions - the unions, for the example, the Church for another, and the Army - or the military for yet another, are meant to keep the n**r in his place."
Legat de ultimul eseu, The White Man's Guilt, Baldwin zice ca de cele mai multe ori, oamenii vorbesc cu totul diferit in prezenta celor de culoare: "I wonder this because they do not, after all, seem to find very much to say to me, and I concluded long ago that they found the color of my skin inhibitory. This color seems to operate as a most disagreeable mirror, and a great deal of one's energy is expended in reassuring the white Americans that they do not see what they see."
Din fericire, Black Button Books a tradus deja doua carti si urmeaza cu siguranta sa le citesc candva in viitorul apropiat. O recomand si pe Bell Hooks in aceeasi nota.
August 26, 2024
Baldwin nunca desaponta. Três ensaios sobre as mudanças no Harlem, a educação, a negligência propositada das políticas americanas para com a população negra e a ilusão intrínseca em que vivem as pessoas brancas, baseado no contexto norte americano.
December 28, 2018
This is such a tiny book, a booklet almost. Still, it took me a moment to finish because it resonated with me, I felt like marking so many quotes I regretted reading it on a tram. The pictures painted by Baldwin were vivid and thought-provoking, while his commentary more up-to-date than anyone would like to admit. Dark Days is a collection of three essays on race and identity, written not long before the author’s death. I loved how emotional they were, full of anger, empathy and the heartfelt attempts to capture the whole picture of the race, prejudice and exclusion issues in USA. Reading it I regret only that nobody introduced me to Baldwin during my university days. He was no-existent in our curriculum and even now it makes me sad.
July 1, 2024
Reread on 30/6/2024:
A much needed salve during this uncertain time. James Baldwin was such a gift.
Read on 25/8/2019:
To be black was to confront, and to be forced to alter, a condition forged in history. To be white was to be forced to digest a delusion called white supremacy.
What struck me mostly about this book is how relevant James Baldwin’s essays remain after decades. His prose, while angry and melancholic in this text, is refreshing and powerful. Everything in this book still holds true today, nothing has changed. Especially in the U.S politics context, on what it means to be black in America. Exceptional writing and looking forward to reading more of his books.
A much needed salve during this uncertain time. James Baldwin was such a gift.
Read on 25/8/2019:
To be black was to confront, and to be forced to alter, a condition forged in history. To be white was to be forced to digest a delusion called white supremacy.
What struck me mostly about this book is how relevant James Baldwin’s essays remain after decades. His prose, while angry and melancholic in this text, is refreshing and powerful. Everything in this book still holds true today, nothing has changed. Especially in the U.S politics context, on what it means to be black in America. Exceptional writing and looking forward to reading more of his books.
December 31, 2022
a richly blunt and a collection of personal and objective accounts of racism in America at the time Baldwin was writing this. it’s the first Baldwin I’ve ever ready, but this tells me I should read more.
March 16, 2020
"My point of view certainly is formed by my history, and it is probable that only a creature despised by history finds history a questionable matter."
Dark days is a short book containing 3 essays about racism. I can tell that he wrote these in sort of an angry disposition but I'm inclined to say: that's what made them so perfect.
They're incredibly eloquent, relevant & applicable even decades later.
He talks about his own experiences whilst making his points which paint a raw, heart-rending portrait. He didn't shy away from covering "unpleasant" topics: white supremacy, mobs executing the will of the state. His words may make some people uncomfortable but I believe that is the objective.
This was the perfect introduction to James Baldwin's books. This is the first time I've read his work but I can't wait to pick up more of it.
I absolutely loved the book & definitely recommend it.
Dark days is a short book containing 3 essays about racism. I can tell that he wrote these in sort of an angry disposition but I'm inclined to say: that's what made them so perfect.
They're incredibly eloquent, relevant & applicable even decades later.
He talks about his own experiences whilst making his points which paint a raw, heart-rending portrait. He didn't shy away from covering "unpleasant" topics: white supremacy, mobs executing the will of the state. His words may make some people uncomfortable but I believe that is the objective.
This was the perfect introduction to James Baldwin's books. This is the first time I've read his work but I can't wait to pick up more of it.
I absolutely loved the book & definitely recommend it.
May 7, 2024
Even after decades, this is still relevant, and how scary it is to know that we've come a ways too little to change the premise of racism and the importance of black lives in a white world.
The middle essay, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘵, spoke to me the most, mostly because I was interested in how Baldwin was exposed to the richness of black culture through the superiors he got to know and got to be proud of.
It's incredible to pick up such a short collection of essays that shoulder so close to our real time and yet speaks the same truths that are hailed today. This marks Baldwin's timelessness as a writer and his longstanding efforts to allow others to realize the importance of queer and black lives.
The middle essay, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘵, spoke to me the most, mostly because I was interested in how Baldwin was exposed to the richness of black culture through the superiors he got to know and got to be proud of.
It's incredible to pick up such a short collection of essays that shoulder so close to our real time and yet speaks the same truths that are hailed today. This marks Baldwin's timelessness as a writer and his longstanding efforts to allow others to realize the importance of queer and black lives.
March 12, 2018
Three essays: the first a really interesting young personal and New York history; the second a slightly less clear, slightly later life personal history; and the third a highly, as it were, unnecessarily, indeed, parenthetical rant about historical guilt that presumes to know what all white people think (they're all the same, no doubt).
Baldwin could write beautifully and incoherently, clearly and illogically. This short collection doesn't give much indication of which was more usual for him, but it started out by making me want to read much more of his stuff, and ended by making me unlikely to.
Baldwin could write beautifully and incoherently, clearly and illogically. This short collection doesn't give much indication of which was more usual for him, but it started out by making me want to read much more of his stuff, and ended by making me unlikely to.
May 22, 2018
Far too relevant - Baldwin should be mandatory reading for all Americans right now.
August 27, 2025
I love you James Baldwin
the final essay in this collection was my favourite.
The White Man's Guilt.
Here, Baldwin details the refusal or the inherently embedded refusal of White Americans to face their history.
Baldwin states history is 'something not merely to be read' and that 'The great force of history comes from the fact we carry it within us'. This quote is fascinating and seemingly draws upon many historical and philosophical debates... this quote is brilliant as it ties all those ideas into a nice neat bow and is simple but powerful.
White America whether or not they know it have been force fed lies of their history repeatedly... the same goes for White people here in England whether they acknowledge their history or not whether they are embarrassed by it as Baldwin says 'in the most private chamber of his heart, always, the white American remains proud of that history for which he does not wish to pay, and from which, materially, he has profited so much.'
Later Baldwin says something I found so fascinating 'Now if I, as a black man, profoundly believe that I deserve my history and deserve to be treated as I am, then I must also, fatally, believe that white people deserve their history and deserve the power and the glory which their testimony and the evidence of my own senses assure me that they have. And if black people fall into this trap, the trap of believing that they deserve their fate, white people fall into the yet more stunning and intricate trap of believing that they deserve their fate, and their comparative safety and that black people, therefore, need only do as white people have done to rise to where white people now are.'
This leads onto what I believe is his thesis that the white man's guilt comes from fear 'white people carry in them a carefully muffled fear that black people long to do to others what has been done to them.'
A quote that rings true so unabashedly true in this modern day political climate.
If you want to understand race and the Black American experience read James Baldwin
the final essay in this collection was my favourite.
The White Man's Guilt.
Here, Baldwin details the refusal or the inherently embedded refusal of White Americans to face their history.
Baldwin states history is 'something not merely to be read' and that 'The great force of history comes from the fact we carry it within us'. This quote is fascinating and seemingly draws upon many historical and philosophical debates... this quote is brilliant as it ties all those ideas into a nice neat bow and is simple but powerful.
White America whether or not they know it have been force fed lies of their history repeatedly... the same goes for White people here in England whether they acknowledge their history or not whether they are embarrassed by it as Baldwin says 'in the most private chamber of his heart, always, the white American remains proud of that history for which he does not wish to pay, and from which, materially, he has profited so much.'
Later Baldwin says something I found so fascinating 'Now if I, as a black man, profoundly believe that I deserve my history and deserve to be treated as I am, then I must also, fatally, believe that white people deserve their history and deserve the power and the glory which their testimony and the evidence of my own senses assure me that they have. And if black people fall into this trap, the trap of believing that they deserve their fate, white people fall into the yet more stunning and intricate trap of believing that they deserve their fate, and their comparative safety and that black people, therefore, need only do as white people have done to rise to where white people now are.'
This leads onto what I believe is his thesis that the white man's guilt comes from fear 'white people carry in them a carefully muffled fear that black people long to do to others what has been done to them.'
A quote that rings true so unabashedly true in this modern day political climate.
If you want to understand race and the Black American experience read James Baldwin
May 14, 2021
Baldwin üç kısa denemesiyle, kendi hayatından yararlanarak Amerika’daki sistematik ırkçılığa bir bakış atıyor. Doğup büyüdüğü Harlem’den başlayıp inişli çıkışlı Amerikan panoramasını, iş hayatındaki deneyimlerini, ırkçılık sebebiyle kaybettiği aşığından bahsediyor. Beyazlar tarafından şekillenen tarih, kendi köklerini silip beyazlığa geçiş biletine sahip olmak isteyen siyahiler Baldwin’in sorguladığı bazı meseleler. Kurgusu kadar kurgu dışı eserleri de başarılı olan nadir yazarlardan biri Baldwin.
✏️“White man, hear me! History, as nearly no one seems to know, is not merely something to be read. And it does not refer, merely, or even principally, to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do.”
✏️”I know very well that my ancestors had no desire to come to this place: but neither did the ancestors of the people who became white and who require my captivity song; They require of me a song less to celebrate my captivity than to justify their own.”
✏️“White man, hear me! History, as nearly no one seems to know, is not merely something to be read. And it does not refer, merely, or even principally, to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do.”
✏️”I know very well that my ancestors had no desire to come to this place: but neither did the ancestors of the people who became white and who require my captivity song; They require of me a song less to celebrate my captivity than to justify their own.”
July 11, 2021
"The irreducible price of learning is realizing that you do not know. One may go further and point out - as any scientist, or artist, will tell you - that the more you learn, the lest you know; but that means that you have begun to accept, and are even able to rejoice in, the relentless conundrum of your life."
I read this extract when I took this book off the shelf in a bookstore, the next thing I did was to buy this tiny book of essays. It's my first time properly reading James Baldwin and I have to say that I'm absolutely amazed by the beauty of his writing. These three essays are so powerful, interesting and important, and I particularly found them impactful through the way James Baldwin exposed his own experiences to end up with a moral in each one of them, this kind of moral that stays stuck in a corner of your mind. I'm definitely going to reread these essays in the future because I think every read of those taught you something more.
I read this extract when I took this book off the shelf in a bookstore, the next thing I did was to buy this tiny book of essays. It's my first time properly reading James Baldwin and I have to say that I'm absolutely amazed by the beauty of his writing. These three essays are so powerful, interesting and important, and I particularly found them impactful through the way James Baldwin exposed his own experiences to end up with a moral in each one of them, this kind of moral that stays stuck in a corner of your mind. I'm definitely going to reread these essays in the future because I think every read of those taught you something more.
March 10, 2023
Three short essays, that argue about poverty and how black people are not treated fairly compared to white coloured people. It was interesting to read and to educate myself on the topic. I must say that I sometimes just despise humanity. It makes me hope that there isn’t an after life, and that we won’t find a way to survive the climate change that we partially created ourselves. I want us all to be equals and to eventually go extinct.
March 13, 2022
A collection of three essays by James Baldwin. Superb writing. My personal favorite was the last essay ‘The White Man’s Guilt’.
My first time reading anything by Baldwin and it did not disappoint. I can’t wait to read more by him.
4.5/5
My first time reading anything by Baldwin and it did not disappoint. I can’t wait to read more by him.
4.5/5
August 18, 2023
Short, afternoon read about the prejudiced environment of 60-80s USA. Beautifully written, as all of Baldwin’s works are, and manages to capture the quiddity of the issue at heart in a mere few sentences.
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