James Baldwin Already Said Everything

Go forth and read James Baldwin. Or watch him on video. He has articulated pretty much everything, better than the rest of us. We should all just sit down and read or listen.

Image: Wikipedia

I recommend The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings — because I am currently reading it. But really, it’s all good. Start anywhere.

Today I saw James Baldwin say something very important on a video. I replayed it a couple times and then I wrote it down. He said:

“We don’t change anything. All we can do is invest people with the morale to change it for themselves.” — James Baldwin

Let’s ponder that for a sec.

In these days Injustice juts out in high relief in our public life. The fissures ooze like the sidewalk in front of the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. Dog whistles are now street chants. The quiet part gets said loud.

We know that to counteract these forces, we have to be present for each other, be vocal, make space, and if we’re on the receiving end of injustice, band together so as not to shoulder the burden alone. There’s power in all of that.

But change? Racism is a racist problem. Bullying is a bully problem. Harassment is a harasser problem.

Here lies the conundrum. It would appear that those who are least likely to want change are the ones most centrally positioned to create it.

Fortunately, James Baldwin saw this with crystal clear unclouded laser vision. And that’s why we should visit with that quote up there.

Because yes, many believe themselves to be invested in the current system whatever that may be, and by extension they perpetuate the injustice such a system visits on so many. But I do believe, there are enough of us who wish to live in a just society to invest others with the morale.

Bobby Kennedy understood this. He was killed for it. The people who stood along the train tracks throughout the towns and fields as his funeral car passed understood it. He had made space for them.

Image: New Yorker

What does this mean to invest others with morale? What do we do? I think we purposely create situations whose core is respect for the space and the people in it. Over and over and over. Bigger and bigger. The arts do this. Performance does this. Writing does this. Museums do this. They make the space and they say, “enter and be a human.” They make a mini-me of the world for us to practice in.

Here just listen to Mr. Baldwin for a bit. Here he is being interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air in 1986.

Hopefully that will give you some bit of a renewed feeling and invest you with some morale.

Love that Baldwin man.

May you find the perfect parking place, may your blankets and socks be warm or your iced tea be cool depending on your hemisphere, won’t you be my neighbor?

-Betsy

Betsy Streeter is a cartoonist and artist who writes a newsletter about Bad Art.