Why James Baldwin Still Matters | Hacker News Reader

Why James Baldwin Still Matters

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57 pointssamclemens13 comments

I recently read my first two Baldwin books (Go Tell It On The Mountain and The Fire Next Time) and in both cases I was blown away by the completeness of his treatment of racism at a time when black people were fighting for much more basic civil rights.

I also recently read some of the popular modern books about race in America (Between The World and Me, The New Jim Crow, etc) and I found Baldwin just as essential to understanding the world in 2016. Particularly with 'The Fire Next Time', I felt the book achieved its goals perfectly.

I haven't read Baldwin, so maybe this comment sells him short, but virtually every time I venture to read pieces american literature written by black people, be it Malcolm X's autobiography, or Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, or Martin Luther King's writings such as "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", or any book about the Black Panthers, I come away with the impression that media as a whole somehow really undersells and sanitizes the depth of the struggle and the imagination of their leaders in a way similar to Thanksgiving Dinners.

Every single one of those people was saying things back in their day that are still relevant today, in a way that feels indicting of the progress made thus far.

The Fire Next Time still exactly describes the experience of black America as far as I can tell. I think, actually, we went backwards in many ways, from where we were in the 70s and 80s.

No disrespect to Coates, but I don't think you can read his book correctly without reading Baldwin, just like you can't watch Star Trek Into Darkness without seeing Wrath of Khan.

This has to be a contender for the most hackernews comment ever. Fantastic. :-)

There's a really interesting debate between Baldwin and William Buckley up on youtube. Riviting stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFeoS41xe7w

Wow, knowing nothing about Baldwin until just now I did not expect it to be that good; I don't think I have ever seen such an amazing and convincing speech. Naturally, I searched the internet to learn more about it, found this essay:

https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/education-oronte-churm/...

Baldwin's speeches are often of very high quality and really stand up all these years later. Such a beautiful voice, and cadence. And so perceptive and honest. (E.g., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAeYKwlIU08)

His writing is gold but most impressively his boldness in the Era he lived in.

Did you create an account just to post this ;)?

perhaps he or she was inspired to create an account by this submission!

The Fire Next Time - a book everyone should make time for. Short. Brilliant. Until I read I never grasped the utter lack of integrity in the world around me.

Huge fan of Baldwin but this is a strangely titled piece. It's mostly reminiscences of what Baldwin meant to the author personally.

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