I Am Not Your Negro

I watched Oscar nominated, I Am Not Your Negro on BBC iPlayer earlier this week and I recommend it as a must watch. This feature length documentary is based on James Baldwin’s final and sadly unfinished project to critique American society from the perspective of the of the assassination of his friends Medger Evers, Malcolm X and Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

We have been following the Black Civil Rights and Liberation Movement since we were teens with the passion that only teenagers can muster up. Of course we are not Black but I don’t know one single person from a Black or minority ethnic background that has not experienced racism first hand or been gaslighted over the years about the existence of racism.

The documentary is beautifully produced and features James Baldwin’s interviews and notes which are most haunting when played over footage of contemporary injustice and riots. What I love the most about this documentary is that it starts by mentioning the friendship between James Baldwin, Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X. These three huge, charismatic and dynamic personalities were often pitted against each other on televised interviews as opposites and often passionately disagreed with each others perspective.

Over the years, however, their positions came closer together and formed a Venn diagram of love, kinship and friendship. A Muslim, Christian and Athiest homosexual. Isn’t that aspirational leadership, to learn from your disagreements, to not be influenced by pride, ego or biggoted religious doctrine, to allow a difference of opinion but remain good friends?

I Am Not Your Negro by filmmaker Raoul Peck, narrated by Samuel L. Jackson and written by James Baldwin.