for those who don’t know, James Baldwin was an African-American novelist who wrote extensively about his personal experiences facing discrimination based on social class and race. in the following passage from a compilation of his essays, “Notes of a Native Son”, he describes an encounter where a white waitress told him they don’t serve blacks at their establishment
“She did not say it with the blunt, derisive hostility to which I had grown so accustomed, but, rather, with a note of apology in her voice, and fear. This made me colder and more murderous than ever. I felt I had to do something with my hands. I wanted her to come close enough for me to get her neck between my hands. ... I realized she would never come any closer to me and that I would have to strike from a distance. There was nothing on the table but an ordinary water mug half full of water, and I picked this up and hurled it with all of my strength at her. She ducked and it missed her and shattered against the mirror behind the bar. ... I could not get over two facts. One is that I could have been murdered. The other is that I was ready to commit murder.”
over the rest of the essay he comes to the exact opposite logical conclusion of ER, as in “hatred is a personal evil that spiritually devastates the person experiencing it”. what I find noteworthy about that is it shows how even a person who is, at their core, an empath with no desire to hurt anybody can be driven to this kind of action when they’re cruelly ostracized by everyone around them. one of the main themes in this essay is how violence is a tragic, yet natural response when humans feel hopeless and powerless
one could potentially argue that the events described in this passage are purely the result of racial dynamics, and that it has no relevance to incels as a social phenomenon. but I think it’s important to note how it wasn’t just the discriminatory nature of the waitress’ action that caused him to snap. he had faced similar discrimination every day of his life and, as he mentions, had grown accustomed to it. it was her fearful and condescending attitude towards him, a form of ostracization that he was not emotionally hardened to, that drove him to abandon all rational thinking and assault her.
I believe Baldwin’s writing here provides great insight on how the emotional toll of being alone and treated as an “other” can drive a person to extremes, in a way that’s easy for the average person to digest and sympathize with
“She did not say it with the blunt, derisive hostility to which I had grown so accustomed, but, rather, with a note of apology in her voice, and fear. This made me colder and more murderous than ever. I felt I had to do something with my hands. I wanted her to come close enough for me to get her neck between my hands. ... I realized she would never come any closer to me and that I would have to strike from a distance. There was nothing on the table but an ordinary water mug half full of water, and I picked this up and hurled it with all of my strength at her. She ducked and it missed her and shattered against the mirror behind the bar. ... I could not get over two facts. One is that I could have been murdered. The other is that I was ready to commit murder.”
over the rest of the essay he comes to the exact opposite logical conclusion of ER, as in “hatred is a personal evil that spiritually devastates the person experiencing it”. what I find noteworthy about that is it shows how even a person who is, at their core, an empath with no desire to hurt anybody can be driven to this kind of action when they’re cruelly ostracized by everyone around them. one of the main themes in this essay is how violence is a tragic, yet natural response when humans feel hopeless and powerless
one could potentially argue that the events described in this passage are purely the result of racial dynamics, and that it has no relevance to incels as a social phenomenon. but I think it’s important to note how it wasn’t just the discriminatory nature of the waitress’ action that caused him to snap. he had faced similar discrimination every day of his life and, as he mentions, had grown accustomed to it. it was her fearful and condescending attitude towards him, a form of ostracization that he was not emotionally hardened to, that drove him to abandon all rational thinking and assault her.
I believe Baldwin’s writing here provides great insight on how the emotional toll of being alone and treated as an “other” can drive a person to extremes, in a way that’s easy for the average person to digest and sympathize with
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