The expository paper frames the question of ideological liberation for the African-American community by using James Baldwin’s “Stranger in the Village” (1953) examines the conflict of “the black man” in ascertaining his individual identity amid a historic narrative wrought by subjugation and slavery. The essay further interrogates Baldwin’s claims through Kincaid’s “In History” (2001), concerning the irreconcilable tension between historic narrative and the post- colonial individual. Finally, Claudia Rankine’s “The Condition of Black Life is One of Mourning” (2015) reflects on present and historic forms of activism, and is used to situate the pursuit of subjectivity by Baldwin’s “black man” as a means to pursue individual identity amid destructive cultural narratives, as well as significantly higher occurrences of police brutality and criminal injustice.