Category: James Baldwin

Lynching, nooses and the violence of silence

.Reading time 10 minutes.

James Baldwin looked down at the red clay hills of Georgia and thought “that this earth had acquired its color from the blood that dripped down from the trees.”  That lynching is a part of America’s troubled history cannot be overstated and yet it is not often talked about.  Still, Billie Holiday sang of its […]

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Full of Ourselves

.Reading time 8 minutes.

“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself […]

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The Lie of Race

.Reading time 2 minutes.

“White people have not always been ‘white,’ nor will they always be ‘white.’  It is a political alliance.  Things will change.”  {Amoja Three Rivers} I begin with whiteness because all of the other social colors define themselves by it.  In fact, the other social colors exist for it.  Whiteness depends on blackness, for example, for […]

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I Am Not Your Negro

.Reading time 1 minute.

“I am not a nigger.  I am a man.  If you think that I am a nigger, it means you need it.  And you have got to find out why. The future of our country depends on that.” ~ James Baldwin It is the title of a documentary slated to be released on February 3 and […]

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