It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have. James A. Baldwin
Get up and go to the movies and see the documentary “I Am Not Your Negro.” This week, before the documentary leaves the theaters. For me, sitting in a theater in suburban Pleasant Hill with my husband and I being the only Blacks in an audience with two unrelated Asians and a fair amount of elderly white people was odd.
It is always a moment when you are in a theater and you are looking at your story, your pain, your struggles, your rage surrounded by people who might sympathize, but do not know the experiences. As for celebration and joy, that can be found in the soundtrack. There were moments of laughter, but Gregg and I were always on the two with the downbeat while the others were on the upbeat. We were whispering, “Remember” and “still true” and “yes.” The film was full of our heroes, people who shaped us, Malcolm, King, Medgar Evers, Belafonte, and more as well as the struggles that defined us.
This film uses Baldwin’s own words to talk about his days, talk about these days. I was moved again, as I was while he lived, by his clarity, and at the same time dismayed that words spoken thirty, forty almost fifty years ago were still as cogent and clear and accurate about where we are in 2017 when over-layered on today’s realities.
I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain. James A. Baldwin
Certainly with resurgence of open racism and bigotry and unabashed white supremacy, the important question he poses about why America created and needs to maintain niggers still needs to be answered. Baldwin poses important realities and points to a road for reconciliation and eventual triumph. Young people, old enough to not have nightmares with the images of police brutality, then and now, and lynching should see it for its broad historical canvas and a reality of how we got here.
It is very nearly impossible… to become an educated person in a country so distrustful of the independent mind. James A. Baldwin
The rest of us should see because it will feed the will to keep on keeping on, being, as Baldwin notes, hopeful despite awareness and history, because our destruction lies in pessimism and despair. For an insightful review go to the New York Times article. But hey, get up go to the movies. You’ll be glad you did. Encourage this kind of film making.
The world is before you and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in. James A. Baldwin