Tag: James Baldwin

Getting away from race

.Reading time 5 minutes.

“Someone once said to me that the people in general cannot bear very much reality.  He meant by this that they prefer fantasy to a truthful recreation of their experience.” ~ James Baldwin, “Mass Culture and the Creative Artist: Some Personal Notes,” 1959 In recent days, I have been reading the writings of noted author […]

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What Race Cannot Answer

.Reading time 3 minutes.

“I am beige, brown, black, red, yellow, white.”   What do we mean when we define ourselves by the social coloring of skin?  Because calling yourself a color will not answer who you are.  And the social construct of race does not tell us who or why we are but what we are– colored people.  More it […]

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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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We are responsible for the racist

.Reading time 5 minutes.

“…I am aware that no man is a villain in his own eyes.  Something in the man knows– must know– that what he is doing is evil; but in order to accept the knowledge the man would have to change.  What is ghastly and really almost hopeless in our racial situation now is that the crimes […]

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Snap Out Of It

.Reading time 2 minutes.

“One must be careful not to take refuge in any delusions– and the value placed on the color of the skin is always and everywhere and forever a delusion.” ~ James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time Race is an illusion, a false belief that has placed us in a constant state of deception. We are […]

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