#BlackHistoryMonth James Baldwin

FEBRUARY

28. by James Baldwin

Finish date: 20 February 2022
Genre: Non-fiction
Rating:
Review: A

Bad news: The second half of the book was very political and dense. I do remember the Black Panther Party and Angela Davis vaguely…but reading about it now, it felt so far away. But at the time JB was writing this book….there was a fresh black political movement that was awakening and for the times…very thrilling for some …and very threatening for others.

Good news: The first halve of the book was a very personal story about James Baldwin’s life. It just drew me into the book and at times I felt JB just siting here talking to me.

Good news: Excellent writing…and many insights made by JB in 1972…still ring true today. There are hard truths about the lives of black people in America. The doctrine of white supremacy which still controls most white people is a delusion. People who cling to their delusions find it difficult, if not impossible to learn anything worth learning. To be born black in America is an immediate, a mortal challenge. (G. Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Briana Taylor, Duante Wright) Note: 18.02.2022 Kim Potter (ex-policewoman, Minnesota) will serve 16 months for killing a black teenager, Duante Wright…while in Tennessee Pamela Moses was sentenced to 6 years for trying to register to vote while on probation.

Personal: Any book by James Baldwin IMO is electric. There is a lot to absorb. I was struck by some his words written made 50 years ago: — People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to him, poisoned.  (pg 191) — The Western party is over, and the white man’s sun has set. Period. (pg 196) Captivating…when JB tells us in 1971 that …when the black man’s mind is no longer controlled by the white man’s fantasies…a new balance begins to make itself felt. (pg 189)
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