--- title: "4 African americans Quotes By James Baldwin" description: "4 African americans quotes by James Baldwin. Plus more from James Baldwin and more African americans sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a64/james-baldwin-995_african-americans_in-the-context-of-the-negro-problem-neit_140881.jpg" --- > [“In the context of the Negro problem neither whites nor blacks, for excellent reasons of their own, have the faintest desire to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/in-the-context-of-the-negro-problem-neither-whites-nor-blacks-for/) [James Baldwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-baldwin/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a64/james-baldwin-995_african-americans_in-the-context-of-the-negro-problem-neit_140881.jpg) > [“The time has come to realize that the interracial drama acted out on the American continent has not only created a new…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/the-time-has-come-to-realize-that-the-interracial-drama-acted-out-on/) [James Baldwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-baldwin/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ef8/james-baldwin-995_african-americans_the-time-has-come-to-realize-that-the-in_584072.jpg) > [“Yet, if the American Negro has arrived at his identity by virtue of the absoluteness of his estrangement from his past, American…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/yet-if-the-american-negro-has-arrived-at-his-identity-by-virtue-of/) [James Baldwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-baldwin/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1f0/james-baldwin-995_african-americans_yet-if-the-american-negro-has-arrived-at_2198292.jpg) > [“There is no reason for you to try to become like white people and there is no basis whatever for their impertinent…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/there-is-no-reason-for-you-to-try-to-become-like-white-people-and-2/) [James Baldwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-baldwin/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed9/james-baldwin-995_acceptance_there-is-no-reason-for-you-to-try-to-bec_3037497.jpg) ## Other authors on African americans - 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[Salim Akil 5 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/african-americans/salim-akil/) ## More by James Baldwin > [“In any case, white people, who had robbed black people of their liberty and who profited by this theft every hour that they lived,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/in-any-case-white-people-who-had-robbed-black-people-of-their-liberty/) [James Baldwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-baldwin/) > [“The South is very beautiful but its beauty makes one sad because the lives that people live, and have lived here, are so ugly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/the-south-is-very-beautiful-but-its-beauty-makes-one-sad-because-the/) [James Baldwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-baldwin/) > [“All cultures have, furthermore, an economic, social, and political base, and no culture can continue to live if its political destiny is not in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/all-cultures-have-furthermore-an-economic-social-and-political-base/) [James Baldwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-baldwin/) > [“I remembered that life in that room seemed to be occuring beneath the sea, time flowed past indiffrently above us, hours and days had…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/i-remembered-that-life-in-that-room-seemed-to-be-occuring-beneath-the/) [James Baldwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-baldwin/) > [“No. It would help if I were able to feel guilty.But the end of innocence is also the end of guilt”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/no-it-would-help-if-i-were-able-to-feel-guilty-but-the-end-of/) [James Baldwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-baldwin/) > [“Perhaps now, though, he had hit bottom. One thing about the bottom, he told himself, you can't fall any further. He tried to take…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/perhaps-now-though-he-had-hit-bottom-one-thing-about-the-bottom-he/) [James Baldwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-baldwin/) > [“What kind of friendship have you had? Or for that matter...what kind of love affairs?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/what-kind-of-friendship-have-you-had-or-for-that-matter-what-kind-of/) [James Baldwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-baldwin/) > [“For these are all our children, we will all profit by or pay for what they become.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/for-these-are-all-our-children-we-will-all-profit-by-or-pay-for-what/) [James Baldwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-baldwin/) > [“Every society is really governed by hidden laws, by unspoken but profound assumptions on the part of the people, and ours is no exception.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/every-society-is-really-governed-by-hidden-laws-by-unspoken-but/) [James Baldwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-baldwin/) > [“In those days my mother was given to the exasperating and mysterious habit of having babies.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/in-those-days-my-mother-was-given-to-the-exasperating-and-mysterious/) [James Baldwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-baldwin/) > [“He was suggesting that all Negroes were held in a state of supreme tension between the difficult, dangerous relationship in which they stood to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/he-was-suggesting-that-all-negroes-were-held-in-a-state-of-supreme/) [James Baldwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-baldwin/) > [“In the beginning—and neither can this be overstated—a Negro just cannot believe that white people are treating him as they do; he does not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/in-the-beginning-and-neither-can-this-be-overstated-a-negro-just/) [James Baldwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-baldwin/) > [“If the world wasn't so full of dead folks maybe those of us that's trying to live wouldn't have to suffer so bad.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/if-the-world-wasn-t-so-full-of-dead-folks-maybe-those-of-us-that-s/) [James Baldwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-baldwin/) > [“I am very much concerned that American Negroes achieve their freedom here in the United States. But I am also concerned for their dignity,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/i-am-very-much-concerned-that-american-negroes-achieve-their-freedom/) [James Baldwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-baldwin/) > [“The paradox—and a fearful paradox it is—is that the American Negro can have no future anywhere, on any continent, as long as he is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/the-paradox-and-a-fearful-paradox-it-is-is-that-the-american-negro/) [James Baldwin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-baldwin/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/african-americans/james-baldwin/#itemlist", "name": "4 African americans Quotes By James Baldwin", "numberOfItems": 4, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“In the context of the Negro problem neither whites nor blacks, for excellent reasons of their own, have the faintest desire to look back; but I think that the past is all that makes the present coherent, and further, that the past will remain horrible for exactly as long as we refuse to assess it honestly.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "James Baldwin" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/in-the-context-of-the-negro-problem-neither-whites-nor-blacks-for/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a64/james-baldwin-995_african-americans_in-the-context-of-the-negro-problem-neit_140881.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a64/james-baldwin-995_african-americans_in-the-context-of-the-negro-problem-neit_140881.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a64/james-baldwin-995_african-americans_in-the-context-of-the-negro-problem-neit_140881.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“In the context of the Negro problem neither whites nor blacks, for excellent reasons of their own, have the…” — James Baldwin", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“The time has come to realize that the interracial drama acted out on the American continent has not only created a new black man, it has created a new white man, too. No road whatever will lead Americans back to the simplicity of this European village where white men still have the luxury of looking on me as a stranger. I am not, really, a stranger any longer for any American alive. One of the things that distinguishes Americans from other people is that no other people has ever been so deeply involved in the lives of black men, and vice versa. This fact faced, with all its implications, it can be seen that the history of the American Negro problem is not merely shameful, it is also something of an achievement. For even when the worst has been said, it must also be added that the perpetual challenge posed by this problem was always, somehow, perpetually met. It is precisely this black-white experience which may prove of indispensable value to us in the world we face today. This world is white no longer, and it will never be white again.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "James Baldwin" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/the-time-has-come-to-realize-that-the-interracial-drama-acted-out-on/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ef8/james-baldwin-995_african-americans_the-time-has-come-to-realize-that-the-in_584072.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ef8/james-baldwin-995_african-americans_the-time-has-come-to-realize-that-the-in_584072.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ef8/james-baldwin-995_african-americans_the-time-has-come-to-realize-that-the-in_584072.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The time has come to realize that the interracial drama acted out on the American continent has not only…” — James Baldwin", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Yet, if the American Negro has arrived at his identity by virtue of the absoluteness of his estrangement from his past, American white men still nourish the illusion that there is some means of recovering the European innocence, of returning to a state in which black men do not exist. This is one of the greatest errors Americans can make. The identity they fought so hard to protect has, by virtue of that battle, undergone a change: Americans are as unlike any other white people in the world as it is possible to be. I do not think, for example, that it is too much to suggest that the American vision of the world-which allows so little reality, generally speaking, for any of the darker forces in human life, which tends until today to paint moral issues in glaring black and white owes a great deal to the battle waged by Americans to maintain between themselves and black men a human separation which could not be bridged. It is only now beginning to be borne in on us, very faintly, it must be admitted, very slowly, and very much against our will--that this vision of the world is dangerously inaccurate, and perfectly useless. For it protects our moral high-mindedness at the terrible expense of weakening our grasp of reality. People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "James Baldwin" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-baldwin/yet-if-the-american-negro-has-arrived-at-his-identity-by-virtue-of/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1f0/james-baldwin-995_african-americans_yet-if-the-american-negro-has-arrived-at_2198292.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1f0/james-baldwin-995_african-americans_yet-if-the-american-negro-has-arrived-at_2198292.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1f0/james-baldwin-995_african-americans_yet-if-the-american-negro-has-arrived-at_2198292.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Yet, if the American Negro has arrived at his identity by virtue of the absoluteness of his estrangement…” — James Baldwin", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“There is no reason for you to try to become like white people and there is no basis whatever for their impertinent assumption that they must accept you . The terrible thing, old buddy, is that you must accept them. And I mean that very seriously. You must accept them and accept them with love. For these innocent people have no other hope. They are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it. They have had to believe for many years, and for innumerable reasons, that black men are inferior to white men. 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