As children in America, we are taught to believe that we have the power to become whatever we want by the time we fill our parent’s shoes. At least that’s what we like to say to our kindergarten classes and cohorts of voters. To white Americans that is a promise. To Black Americans, it is a sentence—one implemented within the framework of American society. I believe there is a desire within that framework of society to instill an innocence within the masses. That innocence comes in the form of a weighty unconsciousness–an ignorance. In James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, he speaks directly to the American public’s two sides: a young Black man and the white audience. To the latter, he breaks down the Black experience. “Every effort made by the child’s elders to prepare him for a fate from which they cannot protect him causes him secretly, in terror, to begin to await, without knowing that he is doing so, his mysterious and inexorable punishment… And this filters the child’s consciousness through his parents’ tone of voice as he is being exhorted, punished, or loved” (Baldwin 26). In the life of a young Black person, there comes a point of realization–one that is not present in the development of white youth. A realization that they, any Black person, will likely end up with the same life they saw before them. This sets up a primal difference in the formation of consciousness between white and Black people. The innocence of white people lies in what they choose not to understand about the Black condition, which sets apart an advancement of consciousness and understanding of society between the two racial groups. Before the awakening of Black consciousness, we are told not to believe that. We are told that if we discover something special about our existence, we can live a white life. So we must find this thing, a gimmick, to be liberated. Baldwin said so himself: “Every negro boy–in my situation during those years, at least–who reaches this point realizes… that he stands in great peril and must find, with speed, a ‘thing’, and gimmick, to lift him out, to start him on his way” (Baldwin 24). That’s one of the main divides in American society and the differences between Black people and white people. Young Black people have gimmicks, young white people have passions.

Orlando’s Consciousness and Baldwin’s Consciousness

Imagine all of the online games you played as a child, and perhaps still play, that required you to build an avatar. From Dress to Impress on Roblox to Club Penguin to Mario Kart, there are varying levels to your customization. For James Baldwin, that’s simply a game, but for an individual named Orlando–and in theory, any white person living in America–that is a reality. In Virginia Woolf’s mock biographical tale, we follow Orlando through various centuries and nobilities, and we watch as they shift gender and perception through time. Before we enter into comparisons of the two subject matters, I must make it clear that our primary distinction, this difference in consciousness, is placed and implemented within the formations of society, and therefore embedded into its citizens. It is not a genetic difference or superiority; it is not a superpower. It is a lesson; it is an impulse; it is a response after generations of training.

And thus, we enter into the worlds of Woolf and Baldwin. The novel Orlando begins in 1588, and nearly 400 years later as James Baldwin speaks, he is still not free. His family has been released but they do not have freedom. This is a tragic realization when we come to know Orlando and just about everything they achieved, or chose not to, in their lifetime. Born male, and transformed into female at age 30, Orlando felt the oppressions held against women at the time but still held the privileges of someone rich, white, and desirable. The novel is a key text for feminist and gender studies, though that is not the topic of discussion here. Orlando still held the privileges, and innocence, of a white individual of any gender at the time. The fact that they could willfully change how the world labeled their identity goes beyond the power of what any man or woman could do at the time. “No one showed an instant’s suspicion that Orlando was not the Orlando they had known” (Woolf 111). In Orlando, identity is seen as this transient thing, and society around them is conscious of the shift but oblivious to its significance. There is an innocence to the unquestioning of their own in Orlando’s society. It’s a privilege that Baldwin could only gaze upon from a distance–he was trained to distrust his home: “Something very sinister happens to the people of a country when they begin to distrust their own reactions as deeply as they do here, and become as joyless as they do here” (Baldwin 43). It is clear through the comparison of the two books that white people are allowed to change and evolve in ways that Black people have never been able to, allowed to trust where they come from, and what’s within them. Society is aware of Orlando’s uniqueness and is still drawn to them. When a Black woman does her hair a certain way she receives scrutiny. Orlando can trace back centuries worth of their ancestors, and list their influence on their lineage. Most Black people don’t understand or know where they come from. Orlando is a Duke and a Lady at the same time, and Black females struggle today to receive the same respect as white Ladies. “[T]he signs say ‘White Ladies’ and ‘Colored Women” (Baldwin 55).

Another key quality between the two consciousnesses seems to be an attention to detail; an alertness. It is an awareness that goes beyond the grand picture and can see into the past and the future in the present moment that Baldwin speaks of: “[B]ut there is no reason that black men should be expected to be more patient, more forbearing, more farseeing than whites; indeed, quite the contrary” (Baldwin 59). Baldwin goes on to explain that the attention to detail that is present in Black consciousness has more to do with the fact that white men do not want to be threatened. Their lives; their property; their self-worth. It is the job of the threat to remain contained, and this innocence is a paradox within itself. It is a weak belief in one’s innocence. One can exempt oneself from scrutiny, questioning, or threat if one believes they are innocent, and believes everyone around them agrees. A belief in innocence fosters ignorance and unawareness. This was directly reflected in Orlando and the careless way in which they lived. Generations of wealth and nobility before them ensured that Orlando would hold an innocence that impacted their relationships, views on minorities around them, and philosophies of work and society. The world is something to seize, society is something to avoid, and relationships are complex. There are so many layers to Orlando’s life because of the potential and possibility they are granted, but simultaneously it is very one-dimensional because of the innocence that warps the way they see the world. They can only see minority groups as one thing, as simple, which in turn makes Orlando simple.

It’s difficult to believe that groups of people operate in the same way as Orlando, today. There are people with singular perceptions of the world and commitments to themselves only. That brings the question, how does one see oneself in the wider picture of a nation when their innocence shields their perceptions? On a grander, modern scale, how does one truthfully commit oneself to their nation through passions or gimmicks? That brings us to the topic of the Summer 2024 Olympic Games.

White Talent and Black Gimmicks

Every two years the nations of the world “come together” in a sense, to spend some time together in friendly competition. As a young Black American, there’s an unconscious knowing that many people in my community and ones like mine use sports as an escape; as a gimmick. Young Black men and women are expected to excel, and most times choose to commit their lives to a sport, to escape their community, or to level up in life. The Olympics, particularly the Summer Games, is the primary pillar in achieving athletic success. Because of that, many athletes that represented America in the games were Black. For many years, including this year, the US brought back the most medals, and 20 percent of the final medalists in the Female categories were Black. One included in that percentage is Jordan Chiles, a 23-year-old Afro-Latina Gymnast whose team won Gold for All Around and earned a Bronze medal in the floor exercise. After achieving the accolade and celebrating the win, the medal was stripped from her after a Romanian competitor approached the Court of Arbitration for Sport on a violation of a technicality that was later disproven. Jordan did not receive her medal back, and conflicts are still being exchanged. Baldwin would find the irony in this situation humorous. When it’s national pride on the line, Americans support American achievements. When it’s Americans competing against each other for the same thing, the playing field will never be fair. One side of the stadium will always be more lively than the other. This bodes the question, what are the limits of nationalism? Does the idea of nationalism encompass allegiance to fellow citizens within that country or is it limited to the blind obedience of innocence? Directly asked, does nationalism affirm racism and caste systems within nations?

I believe Baldwin would say yes. Our nation supports and acts on what benefits the top caste and the economy most. Orlando, innocently, would understand the will to act on emotion. As a character, they don’t work to sustain themselves; they do work to please themselves in the way that most benefits them in the moment. They do not spend time serving others selflessly; they make the most of their time in doing what they enjoy most; their passions, and expects others to live in the same way. “No passion is stronger in the breast of man than the desire to make others believe as he believes. Nothing so cuts at the root of his happiness and fills him with rage” (Woolf 96). Orlando knows so themself–they distrust the society they live in for their lack of alignment with Orlando’s principals. Orlando feels isolated in society and feels this lack of happiness and rage. There is a minuscule amount of logic within the laws we blindly follow and obey. Like many, Orlando understands only the primal impulse to act on the first emotion associated with an event, not the guiding forces that make Black people pick up gimmicks. This is the root of the difference. Passions, as Orlando has, are sensual and emotional. Gimmicks are deliberate and conscious.

As a Black person in America, you are taught not to trust yourself or where you come from. Interestingly, Baldwin says this, and yet he is guilty of just that–mistrusting his community. Perhaps that is why he can say it—because he knows it. He has lived it and has a changed perspective:

“The person who distrusts himself has no touchstone for reality–for this touchstone can be only oneself. Such a person interposes between himself and reality nothing less than a labyrinth of attitudes. And these attitudes, furthermore, though the person is usually unaware of it (is unaware of so much!) are historical and public attitudes. They do not relate to the present any more than they relate to the person. Therefore, whatever white people do not know about Negroes reveals, precisely and inexorably, what they do not know about themselves” (Baldwin 43).

The idea of touchstones is a theme that connects to the hearts of Orlando and The Fire Next Time. A touchstone for Orlando is the Oak Tree, the physical tree that resides on their family property, and Orlando’s manifestation of it in their poetry that eventually becomes published. This observation is very important to the comparison of the two works. Orlando is allowed to place faith and safety into a tree, along with their passion for poetry, because they were raised with that confidence within themselves. And they’re completely unaware of this privilege. It is a privilege, then and now, because Black Americans are not raised with it. They are not taught confidence. It is something that a Black person would be lucky to stumble upon on the street. Even luckier if an individual can find something powerful enough, safe enough, to trust in. Everyone’s touchstones are different but they should have the same effect–grounding an individual.

Maybe empathy is the effort to understand another’s touchstone. And if we’re living in Baldwin’s world, a lack of empathy is a mirror. The reflection reflects the depth of your own touchstone within you.

“Therefore, whatever white people do not know about Negroes reveals, precisely and inexorable, what they do not know about themselves” (Baldwin 44).

Works Cited

ABC News. “Simone Biles Seeks ‘Justice’ for Jordan Chiles After Bronze Medal Revoked.” 101 ESPN, 28 Aug. 2024, www.101espn.com/news/simone-biles-seeks-justice-for-jordan-chiles-after-bronze-medal-revoked, 29 August 2024.

Baldwin, James. The Fire Next Time, Vintage, 1993.

Ruff, Rivea. “Nearly 40 Black Women Won Olympic Medals for the USA in 2024.” Essence, 12 Aug. 2024, www.essence.com/gallery/black-women-usas-olympic-medals-2024/#1485547, 20 August 2024.

Woolf, Virginia. Orlando, Penguin Modern Classics, 1928.