I Am Not Your Negro

It is certainly because of Bill Miller, who arrived in my terrifying life so soon, that I never really managed to hate White people. Though, God knows, I have often wished to murder more than one or two. Therefore, I begin to suspect that White people did not act as they did because they were White, but for some other reason. 

Bill Miller was Baldwin’s White teacher when he was about ten years old. She was an important advocate and educator in Baldwin’s life, and he gives her credit for helping him to see that White people are not inherently evil. This becomes an important theme as Baldwin contrasts his perspective with the perspective of figures like Malcolm X.

I suspect that all these stories are designed to reassure us that no crime was committed. We’ve made a legend out of a massacre. 

Baldwin reflects on the American western film and how it misrepresents history, erasing the truth that White settlers unjustifiably massacred Native Americans. Baldwin goes on to connect the treatment of Native Americans to the treatment of Black Americans and uses this as a jumping off point to discuss how Americans misunderstand their own history and culture. 

I had to accept, as time wore on, that part of my responsibility—as a witness— was to move as largely and freely as possible, to write the story, and to get it out. 

While riding along with Medgar Evers, Baldwin realizes that he is less immediately involved with the fight for civil rights than some of the activists and organizers he knows. Baldwin makes peace with this, realizing that his role as a writer is to document and move on. This is a large part of the theme for this section.