On 'Innocence' and Loss in Baldwin's Thought

• In Event: Black Political Thought (I)

Abstract

In the face of injustice, how do the powerful and privileged sustain their power and privilege? Specifically, what are the pathologies that enable the powerful to justify and maintain their power even when they are aware of the injustice on which their power depends? According to some scholars who work in ‘epistemologies of ignorance,’ one answer is to these questions consists in ignorance—not as an accidental omission of knowledge, but rather, as a substantive epistemic practice that enables the powerful to sustain its privileged position (Mills 1997 & 2007, Fryre 1983, Schiebinger 2004, Proctor 1996; Tuana 2004). In this paper, I turn to Baldwin’s writings—in particular, 'Nobody Knows My Name' and 'The Fire Next Time'—as a resource for thinking about ignorance in this way. I show that when we examine Baldwin’s conception of ‘innocence,’ what emerges is a complex account of how an epistemology of ignorance operates and persists. Specifically, I argue that Baldwinian ‘innocence’ consists in the set of practices that white Americans employ in response to Black suffering for the sake of preserving white identity. To the extent that white identity consists in the presumption of white supremacy, innocence enables white Americans to simultaneously see and ignore Black suffering—and thereby sustain white supremacy. I also show that Baldwin’s writings help us understand what it would mean for white Americans to counter such ‘innocence.’

To this end, this paper proceeds in three parts. In Part One, I unpack Baldwin’s description of white identity, which at its core, consists in white supremacy; namely, the presumption of white mastery and Black subordination. I show that Baldwin’s use of the natural world as a metaphor for the centrality of white supremacy to white identity reveals how deeply ingrained this presumption is into white identity. White supremacy is inextricably bound up with everyday existence in ways that render it invisible to white Americans, which explains how well-intentioned individuals perpetuate it. A challenge to the presumption of mastery—specifically, through claims to racial equality—is therefore also a challenge to white identity. So to the extent that identity is a source of stability and orientation in the world, Baldwin shows how claims to racial equality generate ‘terror,’ or an existential anxiety for white Americans. Faced with existential anxiety, white Americans will to go to great lengths to preserve their identity, which entails preserving white supremacy. Specifically, they will seek to preserve their identity by engaging in ‘innocence,’ and Part Two lays out its meaning. I show that Baldwinian ‘innocence’ consists in the practices of denial, blame, and displacement. Through the use of a sighted metaphor, Baldwin shows that these practices enable white Americans to simultaneously see Black suffering and ignore their responsibility for it, thereby perpetuating racial injustice. But if ‘innocence’ is alluring for white Americans, Baldwin is clear that it is not inevitable, and Part Three examines what it would mean for white Americans to counter such ‘innocence.’ According to Baldwin, white Americans must give up their presumption to mastery, which would also result in the loss of white identity. I then connect this to the contemporary literature on political loss (Allen 2004; Hooker 2016 & 2017).

By examining the pathologies that enable the powerful to uphold, justify, and sustain their privilege, this paper therefore contributes to the scholarship on Baldwin (Balfour 2001, Shulman 2008, Schlosser 2013, Beard 2017) as well as to the contemporary literature on epistemologies of ignorance by considering how those who possess racial privilege sustain their privilege in the face of injustice.

Author

• Jennie Choi Ikuta, University of Tulsa