ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes Raoul Peck’s critically acclaimed documentary of James Baldwin’s social commentaries to show the relevance of Baldwin’s ideas about race and media in the United States. Peck’s film demonstrates how Baldwin’s unique and penetrating understanding of race relations foreshadowed our contemporary struggles with race, gender, class, and sexual orientation. The chapter describes critical race theory (CRT) to illustrate how Peck’s film captures Baldwin’s penetrating analyses of American media culture’s anti-Black sentiment and fascination with Whiteness. Baldwin was fascinated with American film and devoted an entire book—The Devil Finds Work—to his intimate and complex relationships with Hollywood. Peck uses Baldwin’s personal reflections on film in the same manner as does Baldwin himself—to provide a probing assessment of American racial politics. CRT works from the premise that racism is neither ordinary nor aberrant—it is the way American society does business and the common, everyday experiences of most people of color in the United States.
