Summary

This essay is about the experience of black Americans in Paris, focusing on their encounters with black Americans, white Americans and Africans. Baldwin’s take on these three different types of relationship can be easily summarized. Black Americans tend to avoid other expatriate black Americans because one of the aspects of American culture they are trying to escape is the idea that black people are only happy when they are grouped together. White Americans are made uneasy by the presence of black Americans so far from home, and when the two groups do consort in Paris, they tend to avoid any discussion of home, with all its attendant racial tension. Instead, they speak superficially as tourists of matters French. Finally, the encounter between American blacks and African blacks, throws into relief the peculiar relationship between white and black...