Introduction Race relations in U.S. society have evolved only in an external way; internally-spiritually-they are much as they always were, with the minority race (whether of color or ethnic origin) feeling spiritually disenfranchised from the larger society. Bluebeard concerns what might be termed ethnicity rather than race, for the issues of inequality and a spiritual Diaspora are explored in that book through the character of an Armenian concentration camp survivor looking, through his artwork, for the same sort of spiritual explanations Baldwin’s character seeks through religion.