'Mama's Baby: Impossible Paternity In James Baldwin And The Queer Imagination'?

Matt Brim’s book James Baldwin and the Queer Imagination examines the works of Baldwin through a Queer lens arguing that Baldwin’s works are intersections of race and sexuality. In Chapter 4, entitled “Papas’ Baby: Impossible Paternity in Going to Meet the Man”, Brim focuses on the idea of fathers within literature and culture within white culture. Using Hortense Spiller’s essay “Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe: An American Grammar Book”, Brim’s analysis “raises the issue of paternal presence and absence”(124). According to Spiller there is a paradox within African American slavery in which there are two fathers; the African American father and “captor father”(124), the slave master as a father figure. Since the African American father was denied

Through Jesse’s memory of an African American man being castrated and lynched, he is recalling a past that he is hanging on to and a past he hopes to recreate. The imagery of sex, body, authority and control are all themes that are present throughout Jessie’s life. When Jessie states, “I’m going to do you like a nigger”, impersonating the race that he he hates, Brim states “the black man is remade- made whole again and as the white man’s body- castration gets translated into procreation”(144). I would argue that Jessie says this to further extend his power and privilege as a white male. Throughout the short story we see Jessie’s initiation and practice of white supremacy, from the lynching scene, to his abuse of power as a sheriff. Jessie does not see himself as a racist; instead, he feels he is performing a civic duty, “He tried to be good person and treat everybody right; it wasn’t his fault if the niggers had taken it into their heads to fight against God and go against the rules”. To Jessie, being a sheriff means keeping people in their place. Whites are in power, blacks remain subordinate and these are kept in check through segregation. However, within the confines of his own home, Jessie loses his power because he is

Although it is never stated why the black man was lynched, the focuses on Jesse’s mother and her beauty, ”she was more beautiful than he has ever seen her”, suggests that the African American man was lynched because of his interracial relations with a white women. If this is true, I would suggest that Jesse’s final impersonation of black male while having sex demonstrates Jesse’s ability to mandate when and where blackness is appropriate. In order to become erect, Jesse has to make up a hypothetical scenario where he himself is black yet has white male privilege. In doing so, Jesse reaffirms his sense of control and continues his tradition of white supremacy. Although Brims states the final scene is about racelessness or a future of “racial ambiguity”(151), I think Baldwin attempts to show his audience ways in which white supremacy is a conflict that hinders the individual at the intimate and personal level. Through Jesse, we can see how ideas of hate can cause a person to become emotionally disconnected from themselves and their surroundings; which leads to an emotional death of the self. In order to have passion in his life, to make love to his wife, Jesse must give life to the thing in which he hates the most. In doing so, we see how injustice based on difference not only harms the victim but also