美国国家公共电台 NPR 'I Am Not Your Negro' Gives James Baldwin's Words New Relevance

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Filmmaker Raoul Peck's documentary "I Am Not Your Negro" is nominated for an Oscar. It features the work of the late James Baldwin, American writer, poet and social critic.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO")

JAMES BALDWIN: The future of the negro in this country is precisely¹ as bright or as dark as the future of the country.

CORNISH: Baldwin explored race, class and sexuality in Western society. At the time of his death in 1987, he was working on a book titled "Remember This House." His notes for that project became the foundation for "I Am Not Your Negro," which premieres in theaters today. NPR's Mallory Yu has this report. And a note, it includes archival audio of James Baldwin using a word that many find offensive.

MALLORY YU, BYLINE²: James Baldwin first laid out his plans for the book "Remember This House" in a letter to his literary agent in 1979. In it he wrote that he wanted to explore the lives of three of his civil rights contemporaries and close personal friends - Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Here's actor Samuel L. Jackson, who reads Baldwin's writing throughout the documentary.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO")

SAMUEL L. JACKSON: (Reading) I want these three lives to bang against and reveal each other, as in truth they did, and used their dreadful journey as a means of instructing the people whom they love so much who betrayed them, and for whom they gave their lives.

YU: When filmmaker Raoul Peck first read Baldwin's letter, he knew he had the basis of his film.

RAOUL PECK: Which was, how do I make sure that people today come back to Baldwin and the important words that he have written and this well-needed confrontation³ with reality today with words he wrote, you know, 40, 50 years ago.

YU: The Haitian-born filmmaker has been a fan of Baldwin's work since he was a teenager.

PECK: He helped me understand the world I was in. He helped me understand America. He helped me understand the place that I was given in this country.

YU: And Peck wanted to do the same with "I Am Not Your Negro." In the documentary, he weaves together archival images and footage to illustrate⁴ the impact Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X had, the ways in which they were different and more importantly the ways they were alike. But it is not just a history of the civil rights movement or its key players. The film also examines, as James Baldwin did throughout his life, institutions of racism⁵ and the way they have been upheld throughout the years in American society, by people in power, even by Hollywood.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO")

JACKSON: (Reading) Because Uncle Tom refuses to take vengeance⁶ in his own hands, he was not a hero for me. Heroes, as far as I could see, were white and not merely because of the movies but because of the land in which I lived, of which movies were simply a reflection.

PECK: It's about the deconstruction of Hollywood and all the soft power that Hollywood means and the lies that is also transported in those films. This is something that we need to confront ourself with.

YU: Confronting ourselves is at the core of "I Am Not Your Negro." When Peck began working on the film 10 years ago, he says he meant to rely mostly on Baldwin's words, but as he worked the narrative⁷ shifted.

PECK: It became scarier and scarier because I realized I was making a film where the reality was galloping⁸ even quicker than I was making it. At the time my concern was, how do I put these important words of James Baldwin on the front row? You know, how do I make them accessible to the new generation? And as I was editing this film, we started to have those images of young black men being killed - of the resistance, of Black Lives Matters, of young people again going on the streets to protest. And it was incredible to see. It's exactly - it's happening again, almost the same words and the same anger. And then you see that, my God, nothing have changed fundamentally.

YU: So Peck turns Baldwin's words into a mirror on modern audiences by mixing the archival tape with carefully chosen contemporary footage - the first Obama inauguration⁹, Black Lives Matters protests in Ferguson, Mo., photos of Tamir Rice and Trayvon Martin. This juxtaposition¹⁰ is particularly strong when Baldwin muses¹¹ on a 1963 television segment titled "The Negro And The American Promise."

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BALDWIN: How precise are you going to reconcile yourself to your situation here, and how you are going to communicate to the vast heedless, unthinking, cruel white majority that you are here?

YU: Raoul Peck says Baldwin spoke¹² directly to his audiences then and even now. And he put the onus¹³ of change squarely on people in positions of privilege and power.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BALDWIN: I'm not a nigger. I'm a man. If I'm not the nigger here, and though you invented him - you, the white people invented him - then you have to find out why. And the future of the country depends on that, whether I was able to ask that question.

YU: Because, as James Baldwin wrote, not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. Mallory Yu, NPR News. and.

(SOUNDBITE OF JOEY FEHRENBACH SONG, "INDIGO ROAD")

1 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 confrontation   

n.对抗，对峙，冲突

参考例句：

• We can't risk another confrontation with the union.我们不能冒再次同工会对抗的危险。
• After years of confrontation,they finally have achieved a modus vivendi.在对抗很长时间后，他们最后达成安宁生存的非正式协议。

4 illustrate   

v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图

参考例句：

• The company's bank statements illustrate its success.这家公司的银行报表说明了它的成功。
• This diagram will illustrate what I mean.这个图表可说明我的意思。

5 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

6 vengeance   

n.报复，报仇，复仇

参考例句：

• He swore vengeance against the men who murdered his father.他发誓要向那些杀害他父亲的人报仇。
• For years he brooded vengeance.多年来他一直在盘算报仇。

7 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

8 galloping   

adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The horse started galloping the moment I gave it a good dig. 我猛戳了马一下，它就奔驰起来了。
• Japan is galloping ahead in the race to develop new technology. 日本在发展新技术的竞争中进展迅速，日新月异。

9 inauguration   

n.开幕、就职典礼

参考例句：

• The inauguration of a President of the United States takes place on January 20.美国总统的就职典礼于一月二十日举行。
• Three celebrated tenors sang at the president's inauguration.3位著名的男高音歌手在总统就职仪式上演唱。

10 juxtaposition   

n.毗邻，并置，并列

参考例句：

• The juxtaposition of these two remarks was startling.这两句话连在一起使人听了震惊。
• It is the result of the juxtaposition of contrasting colors.这是并列对比色的结果。

11 muses   

v.沉思，冥想( muse的第三人称单数 )；沉思自语说（某事）

参考例句：

• We have listened too long to the courtly muses of Europe. 欧洲那种御用的诗才，我们已经听够了。 来自辞典例句
• Shiki muses that this is, at least, probably the right atmosphere. 志贵觉得这至少是正确的气氛。 来自互联网

12 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

13 onus   

n.负担；责任

参考例句：

• The onus is on government departments to show cause why information cannot bedisclosed.政府部门有责任说明不能把信息公开的理由。
• The onus of proof lies with you.你有责任提供证据。