
A Look Inside James Baldwin's 1,884 Page FBI File - samclemens
http://lithub.com/a-look-inside-james-baldwins-1884-page-fbi-file/
======
1dundundun
Interesting post from the comments ...

"The FBI did not investigate writers according to their literary merits. As
Kurt Vonnegut's biographer, I can tell you that, despite his publishing
Slaughterhouse-Five— one of the most popular anti-war novels of the 1960s— the
FBI didn't keep a file on him. But the bureau did monitor the lives and works
of Amiri Baraka, Lorraine Hansberry (a 1,000-page file), W.E.B. Du Bois, Ralph
Ellison, Chester Himes, and Richard Wright, among others.

What the bureau opposed was African American literature and its potential— a
backhanded recognition of that genre's power to influence readers. No cultural
upheaval would be coming from the likes of Roth, Updike, or Mary McCarthy, for
reasons you no doubt understand."

~~~
pjc50
Are people surprised that the FBI of the 50s was treating black intellectuals
as some sort of alien internal enemy?

It's not as if this has changed much. Compare the treatment of e.g. Black
Lives Matter with white groups or individuals which are overtly pro-violence,
e.g. [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/neo-nazi-
br...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/neo-nazi-brandon-
russell-explosives-bombs-white-supremacy-timothy-mcveigh-threat-magistrate-
judge-a7785236.html)

~~~
coldtea
> _Are people surprised that the FBI of the 50s was treating black
> intellectuals as some sort of alien internal enemy?_

No, what's surprising is that some people think this was then, and things now
are different.

~~~
M_Grey
A lot of that "thinking" is either wishful, or sculpted by people who need
post-racial apathy to commit their very racially motivated crimes.

------
bradleyjg
Although more like 20 pages than 1800 pages, my family recently use FOIA to
obtain my grandfather's FBI file. It was apparently opened after someone at a
party he attended overheard him speaking about the Rosenbergs and reported to
the FBI that he "sounded like a communist". It turned out to be pretty
interesting.

If you have any family members that were involved with the anti-war movement
or with the labor movement, you may want to file your own FOIA request. They
were surprisingly responsive. Not within the statutory limits mind you, but
less than a year.

~~~
6stringmerc
Glad to hear the spirit and effect of the FOIA gets put to use. Thanks for
sharing the notion and encouragement that there's merit to giving it a try.

------
jpster
But why did James Baldwin have reason to scrutinize the FBI's role during the
civil rights movement? Some background:
[https://zinnedproject.org/2016/03/fbi-war-civil-rights-
movem...](https://zinnedproject.org/2016/03/fbi-war-civil-rights-movement/)

~~~
panglott
A James Baldwin history of the FBI in the South sounds like an amazing book.

------
werber
Granted this is a very narrow view into the files, but they seem awfully
concerned about the gay stuff. Was gay propaganda really that big of a concern
for the FBI back then?

~~~
pjc50
It was certainly something they could use against people. This wasn't so long
after a previous massive witch-hunt:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavender_scare](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavender_scare)

(I can't parse "gay propaganda" without interpreting it as massively
homophobic, care to elaborate?)

~~~
erikpukinskis
I wish more people would understand this.

The reason they are homophobic is because making a normal activity immoral
gives them something they can use to defame people.

Similarly, the reason they are racist because having a frightening other makes
it easier to control the populace. You need a bad part of town to keep prices
up in the good part.

These underlying racist/classist/sexist/homophobic motives then reach around
acausally and individuals think we are in a post-racist or post-sexist
society, that black people commit crime, or that Jews run the world, or
whatever. The system reinforces itself because it needs to in order to
survive. Rational basis for both the -isms and the denial of their power forms
out of nothing to serve the end goal of GDP growth and consolidation of wealth
in the capital class.

It also provides a cultural grounding for policing "good whites" and "bad
whites". You can't use merit, because then the rewards are too predictable and
people won't get addicted to them. When you ground badness in a neighbor
culture, it means people who are part way between cultures (i.e. all of us)
never really know exactly when the rewards are going to come, so they become
addictive. Only people at the extremes know when the rewards are coming: rich
whites (always), poor blacks (never). Both groups use that freedom from
political addiction to control culture. Whites architecturally, blacks
artistically. Wall Street and Hip Hop.

That's also why you see black culture bifurcated with some moving "towards the
bottom" and some "towards the top". There is a power source in both
directions, in thug life and in assimilation. Of course this also provides
free propaganda for racists... "look how they move towards badness"...

~~~
HumbleGamer
First time upvoting anything on here. Well written.

