Who or what is the subject of The Fire Next Time?

Put
simply, the subject of 's is the problem of race in America. At the heart
of the book lies a question: why is it that race actually is a
"problem"? What is it, one hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation, that has
resulted in African Americans still being oppressed, assigned a different status than that of
white people, by the Establishment?

In grappling with this question, Baldwin
is analyzing his own thoughts and reactions, throughout his life, as much as he's examining the
historical forces and the present-day attitudes (in 1963) which have perpetuated a dysfunctional
situation. While critical of the attitudes of white people, he also states forcefully his
disagreement with certain black leaders such as Elijah Mohammed who, in Baldwin's view, are
putting forward unrealistic solutions and have created a racial mythology of their own as
dangerous and self-defeating as that of the whites.

That the book is still
relevant, fifty-five years later, is an indication that even with the very real progress that
has taken place during these decades, much, much more needs to be done. Without offering any
direct "solution" to a situation of enormous complexity Baldwin's implied answer is
that all Americans need to accept (and to accept as a positive thing) the inevitability of a
truly multicultural and multiracial society. Only then can the United States fulfill its promise
to mankind made at the beginning of its history.