This shows and supports Baldwin's claim that the incapability to "see" the problem does not make it better, it makes it worse. Therefore, white people are convicts in the crime of innocence because they are just perpetuating the patterns of racism that plague colored people daily.
Conley, a white male, approaches "innocence" in a much different manner-he does not indicate any feeling of guilt for being innocent. During childhood, Conley is completely innocent of any of the racism, segregation, and hate that our society has. He lived in an all colored neighborhood as a child, so oddly enough, he felt like the minority. All of his friends were colored and for a while he felt colored, also. He even felt "culturally more similar to [his] darker-hued peers than to the previous generations of [his] own family" (Conley 8). One day, being an adventurous young child, he took a little black baby and brought the baby back to his mother because he wanted a sister. He had no conception that that action was unacceptable in both culture and society, but he had no intention of breaking underlying laws of society. He was a child that was oblivious to race and was genuinely innocent of the racism and segregation that characterized his society. This obliquely shows that one cannot be prosecuted for the crime of innocence because there is no punishment for genuinely accepting people for who they are instead of the label that society brands them with. The only thing that Conley did wrong was take the child of a mother who was worried sick. In no way did he try to defy the laws of society by taking a black baby to a white mother. Conley just innocently got a taste of a baby sister that he desired. And that is not wrong.
Baldwin considers white America's plea of "innocence" another form of racism because they are refusing to see the problem and change it. He believes that white America is caught in the role of "innocence" because they fear what will come with accepting the truth.
