Notes of a Native Son: Encounter on the Seine: Black Meets Brown Summary & Analysis

In the roaring 1920s, it was relatively easy for black people to become successful entertainers in Paris—at least in comparison to the time at which Baldwin is writing. He notes that there are a few black performers working today, including Inez Cavanaugh, who runs her own club specializing in “fried chicken and jazz.” In order to be successful today, black entertainers must get along well with other African-Americans living in the city, most of whom are studying on the G.I. Bill. However, Baldwin notes that encountering other Americans in Paris is not always a joyous occasion, and is in fact often embarrassing. White and black Americans are conditioned to view each other with distrust, which can create tension even within pleasant and well-intentioned interactions. Meanwhile, interactions with white Europeans leave black Americans with a sense of uncertainty about their own identity.

This feeling of confusion becomes even more acute when black Americans encounter Africans from the French colonies living in Paris. These Africans harbor a similar sense of bitterness to African Americans, but are less likely to direct this bitterness at themselves. They feel a sense of kinship with their fellow “colonials,” with whom they live in impoverished conditions—although Baldwin notes that this is simply the normal standard of living for young people in Paris. Baldwin emphasizes the fact that people from colonized countries do not feel the same sense of alienation from themselves as African Americans do. There is a 300 year gulf of guilt that exists between Africans and African Americans, which cannot be breached in “an evening’s good-will.” African Americans in Paris may realize that their need to work through their relationship to the past may in fact be a quintessential sign of their own Americanness. They know they will have to return to the United States one day, and that the country will likely not have changed greatly in the time that they have been gone. Baldwin hopes that time will allow black Americans to make peace with themselves and the weight of their history.