the role he was never born to play

In Baldwin’s “Previous Conditions”, we see the character Peter is in an unfortunate situation in life. He is constantly bombarded with racism in every aspect of his life. From his job to his living situations, he is always having to settle because of the color of his skin. This kind of life has made Peter tired. Tired of be constantly forced into a role he has never wanted to play. Coincidentally, Peter is an actor. He travels from city to city, in search of a job, one that he won’t be type casted in, like Native Son. But, as Peter states, “[He’s] not tall and [he’s] not even good looking and [he]can’t sing or dance and [he’s not white; so even at the best of times [he] wasn’t in much demand”(84). Peter has all the odds stacked against him. All he can do is act, which wouldn’t be so bad if he weren’t black. See, most white actors don’t need the embellishment of singing and dancing to help their acting career. But, being a black man auditioning for presumably white productions, he already faces a setback for the color of his skin, and since he can’t do much else, he’s basically screwed nine times out of 10.

Another way Peter has been screwed in life is his housing arrangements. We read of a particular situation where Peter gets kicked out of his rented room for being black because he’s scaring the other tenants. Although I disagree with the act of kicking Peter out because he’s black, I do see the reasoning behind the landlady’s actions. Housing people is her profession, and, as she states, “I don’t have nothing against you, but you gotta get out”(91), she just values multiple tenants and the revenue they produce over just him. She runs a business and, unfortunately, she must make sacrifices. Now, we don’t know if she’s racist or not. In fact, all we know is that she is scared of kicking Peter out, assumably because she racially profiled him as aggressive and dangerous. She is scared to kick him out because of what she thinks he might do to her. She even threatens to bring in law enforcement, pointing out the fact that she has people on her side that will get this job done if he doesn’t leave. Basically, all throughout Peter’s life, it’s been him against the world. Even though he has friends, they don’t truly understand the pain he goes through on a daily basis.

This brings me to the third part of Peter’s life that unintentionally feeds to his disatisfaction, which is his friends. Now, I haven’t the slightest doubt that both Jules and Ida mean well when they try and talk to Peter about his problems, but, as Peter states it, they just don’t get it. Jules is a Jewish man, and although he experiences antisemitism, it’s not nearly as bad as Peter situation. This is because, on the outside, Jules is white. If people don’t know he’s Jewish, they just look at him like he’s your average white male sitting in a bar or walking down the street. But, Peter can’t do that. He wishes people didn’t judge him on the basis of his skin color, but he knows that people do it constantly, even when he’s walking down the street. Jules doesn’t have to sing and dance in order for people to accept him, the color of his skin does the talking. Unfortunately, Peter doesn’t have that luxury. I mean, his skin does some talking, but not in the way he prefers. In fact, he doesn’t even have to say or do anything in order to people to think negatively of him. He has no voice in this judgemental society.

Peter also has Ida, who is an Irish, white woman who married herself into money and attempts to help Peter is any way she can. It’s not clear what their relationship is (whether or not it’s platonic or romantic), but I do think that Ida means well in the ways she tries to help Peter. Unfortunately, like Jules, Ida has no idea what Peter goes through on a daily basis. She tries to console him by stating that other people have to deal with just as bad of problems, but it only makes the situation worse. The way I read it was that, by saying that, Ida was unintentionally telling Peter to grow up. Now, this seems like a very negative accusation, but it make sense. Ida is basically telling Peter that other people have problems too in other parts of the world, that he isn’t alone, and that they are dealing with them, so he should too. He should give in and accept his fate.

But, that’s it. Peter is sick and tired of getting in and settling for less than he deserves. Unlike Donald Trump, Peter hates that he is forced to settle. He’s trying to make his way out of Harlem, but he keeps getting knocked down by the white community. This causes him to not belong to either community, making him stuck in the middle with no way out. Peter just wants a day (or more optimistically, a life) without people constantly judging him and typecasting him. He’s even trying to play the part of a good, respectable citizen by being nice to policemen and paying his rent, but he just can’t seem to gain the respect of those who have already made up their mind about he and his race. It’s a very unfortunate situation and I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to live a life like that.