Selina Rich Professor Cherry Lou Sy English Composition 1010 12th October 2014

Response Paper Black Body: Rereading James Baldwin’s “Stranger In The Village

I found this essay to be fascinating illustrating a vast amount of knowledge on the part of the author, rich in content, and beautifully written. Teju Cole skillfully captures the beauty of the Swiss landscape enabling the physical magnificence of Leukerbad to come to life for the reader, whilst simultaneously placing Baldwin’s alienation, rage, profound grief and “white supremacy” issues amidst that very beauty stating ”The remote village gave him a sharper view of what things looked like back home.” Cole describes how this once quiet Leukerbad has become a tourist resort attracting many due to the mountains and thermal baths which gave me the impression he is trying to convey that time stands still for no one, that everything is a constant state of change yet when it comes to racism, even to this day, “arresting members of the dance troupes that perform in moving subway cars is one of the ways to clean up the city.”still makes sense to some. I immensely enjoyed Cole describing his first night in Leukerbad listening to Bessie Smith, the amazing blues singer a true virtuoso of double entendres, feeling like the “custodian of a black body” and finding himself slipping into Baldwins shoes by virtue of his identification with what it feels like spiritually to speak “the Word.” As he so eloquently puts it “the ancestor had briefly taken possession of the descendant.” These are moments of spiritual awakenings in ones life when the superfluous noise that drowns out the truth within disappears, and one is left with one’s essence, able to connect with essence to all that is surrounding him. This is what Cole experiences and this I believe is what makes this essay so powerfully honest. I thought Cole bringing in Shariffa Rhodes Pitts quote about Baldwins style of writing deeming him “The Jimmy” was fantastic and brought a certain levity to the essay. I also thought his mentioning how there was music playing with African American singers was brilliant. Cole fundamentally feels a love and pride in all aspects of his artistic heritage in which Baldwin finds no solace feeling like a stranger to the greats such as Shakespeare stating “ There’s no world in which I would surrender the intimidating beauty of Yoruba­language poetry for, say, Shakespeare’s sonnets. . . I feel no alienation in museums.” We see Cole has a humble appreciation that this feeling of comfort and sameness was earned by the likes of Baldwin. What for me is the most powerful paragraph comes at the end of the essay when Cole truly comes to understand the layers of Baldwin’s grasp on the reality of the plight of his people: It takes a while to understand that this disposability continues. It takes whites a while to understand it; it takes non­black people of color a while to understand it; and it takes some blacks, whether they’ve always lived in the U.S. or are latecomers like myself, weaned elsewhere on other struggles, a

while to understand it. American racism has many moving parts, and has had enough centuries in which to evolve an impressive camouflage. It can hoard its malice in great stillness for a long time, all the while pretending to look the other way. Like misogyny, it is atmospheric. You don’t see it at first. But understanding comes. No matter how beautiful the surroundings or how much time has lapsed the scars of racism remain and the fight to be seen as equal in all areas of life continues.