General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forumsmarble falls
(57,160 posts)A longer Balwin response:
Thank you so much for this OP. Baldwin had such heart and was able to keep his anger under such control. Thank you, this will be the best thing I'll see today.
Uncle Joe
(58,405 posts)Thanks for the thread DetlefK
heaven05
(18,124 posts)I had seen this, read about this answer and it is still relevant today about the Khristian church(s), redlining real estate and on and on it goes...thank you, I had forgotten.... Some people here can only see us as violent and post OP's in blaring headlines of such and of us being not as good as white people, while denying these truths spoken of by James Baldwin on the white cause of anger in black people who are to this day denied equality ..thank you again .
Lonestarblue
(10,053 posts)The documentary I Am Not Your Negro is highly informative about Baldwins life and his eloquence in defending his race. I definitely recommend it.
RestoreAmerica2020
(3,438 posts)Nitram
(22,853 posts)understood what Baldwin was talking about. I've learned a lot since then. I'd like to share this with friends. Is there a link I can use?
2naSalit
(86,765 posts)and bring it to now in America...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=178&v=QhJIt4uv9x4
Seriously, to me, this sounds like big picture connection of the dots here. I recommend watching the whole show, the whole thing is a gloves off articulation of powerful information.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017504771
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)If a person relates everything to racism and talks about it all the time, it desensitizes people to the issue, and causes them to think, "Oh...THAT again. Don't they talk about anything else?" Then they change the channel. It's not that others don't care. But they get tired of hearing about it.
This is the risk with any issue. If women believed there was widespread misogyny, and they related everything to that, to the exclusion of other issues, people would become desensitized to that, too.
It makes sense for an organization that is for the purpose of an issue to speak about that issue all that time. But for everyday politicians or pundits or others, there is a risk. Altho I understand that people who are most affected by racism or sexism or whatever, do think that most things relate to that. But IMO, always talking about it and relating things to it backfires sometimes. It numbs some people to the issue, even though those people do care about the issue. Sometimes it does more to chug ahead in one's area of expertise, whether science or teaching, and show, rather than talk, about an issue so much.
An example is Obama. I'm sure Obama has many pointed stories about how racism affected him and people he knows. And while he did address racism in his political life, he showed by example that anyone who thought certain negative things about Af Americans were wrong. He also acted on it in his policies. But if he'd talked about it too much, people would've tuned him out. (He DID speak about it, though. He spoke up after the Trayvon Martin incident and other incidents involving Af. Americans.)
marble falls
(57,160 posts)about it.
Ignoring that Austrian from the marching society in his beginnings didn't work out very well at all.
KPN
(15,649 posts)talking about racism = fueling racism, and actually had a discussion with one of my sons just two nights ago about it specifically. He's gay. Not surprisingly, he takes and expressed what basically was the same position or view that James Baldwin did, though not quite so eloquently.
He and this video convinced me. I am always amazed at how much I learn here at DU and from my son (well, all 3 of my kids really).