Notes of a Native Son

“Encounter on the Seine: Black Meets Brown” was first published in The Reporter, June 6, 1950, as “The Negro in Paris.” Baldwin writes about the experience of an American Black person in Paris in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He begins by noting that Black entertainers have a more difficult time becoming successful in Paris than was the case in the 1920s. It seems times have changed: the Black American is no longer a novelty; and post-war Europe is decidedly more of a struggle for everyone. He then notes that only Black entertainers can achieve comradeship with other Black people in Paris. Their non-performing Black countrymen, by comparison, are deliberately isolated. In one sense, the wariness with which Black people regard each other is an extension of the wariness with which he regards all Americans. In another sense, they are trying to escape the segregationist American stereotype that Black people are only happy when they are kept together.

Baldwin observes that Black and White Americans encountering each other in Paris both regard each other through the same distortions created by a lifetime of conditioning. The White American is intimidated to find a Black countryman in Paris; the Black American has learned to avoid any discussion of the past, which includes the current state of affairs in America.