James Baldwin's "Going to Meet the Man"

I found James Baldwin's "Going to Meet the Man" both fascinating and disgusting. I have never understood the whole idea of turning torturing someone to death into a kind of picnicking social gathering. Yet, we repeatedly see this theme throughout history from the gladiators in the Roman Colosseum to the southern lynchings of African Americans in the United States. Baldwin's raw description of Jesse's childhood experience with the lynching of a black man provided insight into the strange make-up of human psychology. At first Jesse was frightened by the disgusting brutality of the crowd, but when he sees his father and mother enjoying themselves, he seems to push that aside and follow his parents example. It shows that, as others have pointed out, racism is not an inborn trait, it often results from one's childhood experiences and parental influences. Many times I think people try to overcome the uncomfortable feelings they may have when facing a situation such as a lynching by replacing the uncomfortable feelings with "enjoyment." Eventually one grows numb and develops the brutal traits they witness at these gatherings. In Jesse's case, the way he seems to "overcome" these feelings is by getting sexual enjoyment out of feeling more powerful over the black race. It is only when he thinks of all the times he has participated in oppressing and brutalizing the black race that he can become sexually aroused enough to have sex with his wife. Even then he has to pretend she is a vulnerable black woman that he is overpowering in order to get enjoyment out of it. I think that Baldwin's "Going to Meet the Man" does a good job at unveiling the raw elements of the human psyche that drive a society to become so corrupt and brutal.