Structure

This book is divided into six chapters which loosely center around six facets of Baldwin's overarching arguments on racism and the discourses surrounding race in America. Peck organizes Baldwin's reflections around the topics of bearing witness and the writer's duty to articulate the problems facing society, the problems with racial representation in the media and in film, and the role of white complacency in perpetuating discrimination against black people in America. This thematic presentation shows Peck's guiding hand in organizing the content of I Am Not Your Negro, and making his points about race in America in this way.

These chapters are composed of quotations from Baldwin. Some are taken from Remember This House, Baldwin's unfinished manuscript with which he intended to chronicle the legacies and murders of his three friends, Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. Many others, however, are taken from speeches...