First Major Assignment Final Draft

“This is not the land of the free”

I Am Not Your Negro is an inspirational documentary created by Raoul Peck. In 1979 James Baldwin started writing a book about race in American society through the story of three of his friends who were assassinated. Sadly Baldwin passed away with only 30 pages finished. Years later Raoul decided to finish Baldwin’s story with old materials from Baldwin and it was narrated by Samuel L Jackson. This documentary shows how furious Baldwin was at the inequality in the nation. Peck took Baldwin’s words and thoughts and used them to show everyone how inequality never went away. He wants people to get angry about these issues so they will finally go away.

As you can see in the film, inequality and racism was a huge problem in the mid to late 1900’s. Baldwin wanted America to understand how greatly affected this country was by these issues. Baldwin showed these problems in the documentary by sharing the stories of the deaths of his three friends. These deaths were big turning points for the American people. His three friends were civil rights activists and were all killed for standing up for what they believed in. His friends were Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr. It is very sad that all three of these men died due to forces that they were trying to change. It was scary for many people to see these activists being picked off one by one, standing up for their rights. The first to be killed was Medgar Evers when who was shot in the driveway of his own home. Medgar’s death was very hard for Baldwin considering that it was the first of his friends to be killed. Two years later Malcolm X was assassinated while speaking at his rally in New York. Malcolm was a very influential speaker and his death was also very scary for America. Martin Luther King Jr’s death, three years later, was the last of Baldwin’s friends. King was shot standing on the balcony of his own home. These deaths were not taken lightly by citizens, especially after MLK died. King was one of the most well known civil rights activists and he impacted people of all races. His death was the one that broke the nation and brought anger out of the African American people. As you can see in the film this anger caused many riots, rallies, and protests to break out. People were standing up for their rights and fighting for justice more than they ever had before. Baldwin telling the stories about his experiences living through the deaths of his friends is meant to convey fear. He wants people to remember the sadness in the civil rights movement so people will want to help to make change. These leaders and the work they did, will never be forgotten. Americans will learn the significant impact these activists made for many years. The goal of the civil rights movement was to stop segregation, sadly this never happened. 

Peck shows clips of violence and inequality in his film suggesting that it never went away. You can see that there has never been a time where violence due to racism and injustice has been resolved. Peck shared a clip from the 1990’s of Rodney King being brutally beaten by police officers on the side of the road after being pulled over for driving under the influence. In this clip, you can see that Rodney was helpless and had no chance against the multiple police officers. This beating was unjust and uncalled for, Rodney did not deserve to be treated so inhumanely. I believe that Raul Peck chose to show this footage of Rodney getting beat up to make viewers emotional and angry. By making the viewers feel this way, the claim Peck is trying to make becomes stronger and more convincing. To show that we still have these issues, Peck chooses to share the story of Micheal Brown. Michael was a 28-year-old African American man that was shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. This was the death that really brought back the anger in African Americans. There were many protests seeking justice for Brown’s death similar to when MLK was killed. Besides inequality, there are many other issues in America. We see clips in I Am Not Yore Negro of shootings in today’s society. In recent years there have been many mass shootings, this is another horrendous problem that needs to stop. This is an issue that affects all races and can motivate people to stand together to stop it. It shouldn’t matter what race these issues affect. Every citizen should come together to fight for what they believe in. 

 Raul Peck took Baldwin’s thoughts and arguments from the time when he was alive and related them to today, showing that all these problems were never resolved. People are always being treated differently depending on their race and it will sadly take many more years to change. In I Am Not Your Negro there is a clip showing Baldwin stating that “this is not the land of the free”. This statement sounds very true in society right now. If we were in a truly free country, there would be no mention of racial inequality. Many African American citizens are still victims of police brutality. There are too many stories of African Americans being shot or beaten by police because they were thought to be “dangerous”, or a “threat”. All the issues mentioned in the film don’t just affect certain Americans, they affect the whole country. Baldwin was alive during the civil rights movement when many racial issues were at there worst. His words are very reliable and should make us want to listen to his experiences and feel his emotion through his wisdom and stories. These issues are only ones that we can fix. Hopefully, as people view this documentary, Peck’s message he is illustrating will influence the viewers to make a change.