Because of two things; his sexual orientation and his cultural heritage. Nay three...his words are enlightening and will liberate. Massa can't have that.
If they're sleeping, they must be dead... At least in the head. His brilliancy humbly screams. Who can remain asleep? Less they desire their own slumber...
My hero. My mind. A conscious for my generation. Such insight, analysis, and soulful preaching we need, thirst, crave, and surely are missing today. A prophet is finite , but his wisdom is infinite and eternal. Love you my brother. Owe you a dues I can never repay.
As Iraqi American I find James Baldwin lighting the way for me. Especially with seeing the trauma of how war was lobbied against Iraq now it’s happening in Palestine! The pain James Baldwin endure relief mine. Not just that but open my eyes to the reality of white supremacy issue!
Who is here in 20 20. Those that ignore history are in danger of it repeating again. And we were forced to read Shakespeare as if he was some god on earth whilst not having any knowledge of self. What a crime
Speak the Truth to the People Talk Sense to the People Free them with Reason Free them with Honesty Free them with Love and Courage And Care for their Being
People came to listen to him as they came to an entertainer and laugh at the genocide of Natives and ongoing genocide of Afrorelated people. They just didn't get it.
Paying your dues is for the dogs. God bless you, you do it. You don't get it, either way. But, oddly, you sometimes do if you withhold payment. I love how he says, "The arbitrarily named;" this is how I consider both my race and my name. I don't have as many soldiers on the front as he does, my other I. I wait in the trenches - the RU-vid comments tab - so I might fire at will. I never envy him, my Enemy; the War is his to lose. I might thank James Baldwin for the recognition of this obvious fact, but it's public domain. I love Baldwin for his ability, that he was more than half-awake. He wasn't your parents' Bible. Sometimes he gave what was true, and mean, almost holy; like the Bible he was almost mean, almost holy. He told the world of what was I, what would remind oneself that the thomping is always ordinary, a nonsense, always downward.
THE genius of his generation. Baldwin should be mandatory reading for high school students across the country. A real, honest reading of his material would result in a mass awakening to the history of social injustice in this country and its central place in the building and maintenance of the sociopolitical order under which we still live. Reading Baldwin is as liberating and essential to the educated mind as any material in the western canon.
Matthew, if I locate it, I will try & send it to you, or post it here. Just sent for Cross of Redemption Uncollected Writings of James Baldwin: will take a couple of weeks to reach me. It just may be in this 2011book....
