How does James Baldwin portray whites in The Fire Next Time?

White Americans are, throughout the novel and almost without exception, viewed as an oppressor, an enemy, and a source of socio-economic-spiritual-political suffering for blacks. It's important to note that the author has a certain degree of sympathy for them. Without absolving them of any of the acts of oppression they've undertaken over the years, he does acknowledge that whites are, in their own way, victims of their own preconceptions, belief systems, and fears.