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- On being called a “ n****r” “Who is the n****r?” It’s a question Baldwin powerfully and succinctly answers in this interview from the 1963 documentary “Take This Hammer.”
- On how systemic racism works. In this clip from a 1968 episode of “The Dick Cavett Show,” Baldwin deftly explains the realities of racism in America: “I don’t know what most white people in this country feel, but I can only include what they feel from the state of their institutions.”
- On a black president. In a 1965 debate with William F. Buckley at Cambridge University, Baldwin shares his vision on the prospect of a black president as suggested by Robert Kennedy (40 years before the election of Barack Obama).
- On the “Negro Problem” Here, speaking to Dr. Kenneth Clark in 1963, Baldwin describes the experience of meeting a 16-year-old black boy who declared: “‘I’ve got no country.
Jun 14, 2022 · He became an important voice through writing passionately about racial discrimination, spirituality and humanity. Baldwin’s writings approach social issues and the psychological pressure affecting African Americans and individuals with different sexual orientations, a then-taboo subject.
James Baldwin was one of America’s greatest thinkers and writers on the subject of race. What would he have thought about present-day protests against police brutality and for racial equity?
The powerless, by definition, can never be "racists," for they can never make the world pay for what they feel or fear except by the suicidal endeavor which makes them fanatics or revolutionaries, or both. James A. Baldwin. Suicidal, Mean, Ideas.
- On Black Americans: “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.”
- On ignorance: “It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.”
- On oppression: “Whatever white people do not know about Negroes reveals, precisely and inexorably, what they do not know about themselves.”
- On rejecting victimhood: “Perhaps the turning point in one’s life is realizing that to be treated like a victim is not necessarily to become one.”
James A. Baldwin. Humanity, Atheism, Causes. The miracle is that some have stepped out of the rags of the Republic's definition to assume the great burden and glory of their humanity and their responsibility for one another.
Aug 1, 2021 · Features. 13 James Baldwin quotes that are still painfully true today. Wisdom on race, social justice, self-belief and more from the prophetic author. Indira Birnie 01 August 2021. Photograph: Getty | Image: Alicia Fernandes/Penguin.
