Nonfiction / Biography / Immigrant History /
Crown; 1st edition
June 30, 2020
ISBN-10 : 0525575324
ISBN-13 : 978-0525575320
272 pages
Hardcover
$13.26
5 Stars
I’ve always considered myself fairly well-read. I read a pretty eclectic assortment of books. I don’t much care for straight Romance, Mathematics, Horror, or Spy genres, but I’ve been known to read in each of those now and then. So how did I never read any of James Baldwin’s books? I knew the name, I recognized his photos, but I don’t think I’ve ever read any of his writings. I now have six of his books (audio) on my phone and am on my way to treating my ignorance. (Remember, ignorance is a treatable condition; stupidity is not.) I remember Angela Davis, Stokely Carmichael, Martin Luther King Jr, the Freedom Marches, but not Baldwin. My ignorance is shameful, but treatable.
I was just starting Chapter Seven when Roe v Wade was killed. By the end of the second paragraph, I had an epiphany—maybe Glaude and Baldwin wrote it for and about people of color, but it is equally about the other ‘not quite human’—woman. The part that struck me,
reads: “We tolerated bigotry and discrimination…I think there is a kind of smog in the air that’s created by the history of slavery and lynching and segregation, and I don’t think we’re going to get healthy, I don’t think we can be free…until we address this problem. But to get there we’re going to have to be willing to tell the truth.” And I don’t think the dominant caste wants to hear the truth, let alone own it. [Italics mine.]
Just about every place in this book that either Glaude or Baldwin say “black man” can easily be changed to “woman.” That is not to take away anything from either author, but to give a new meaning to the words. If you don’t own your body, someone else does. The one is a slave, the other a master.
Like Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents —by Isabel Wilkerson, I think Begin Again should be required reading for anyone who wants a High School Diploma. This book will cause the reader to think, to ponder, and hopefully, to search their own heart and mind and figure out what they can do to help bring America together as a whole, whether black or brown, copper or yellow, or varying shades of pink. White privilege exists and it must be recognized and disposed of.
Glaude is a marvelous writer, and a captivating speaker. I would love to take a class from him. I wasn’t sure about his use of “Jimmy” for Baldwin, but then I realized it brought Baldwin closer to me, not someone far away, but a friend in the other room. This is a book I shall read again.
And I finish with one other quote from the book, “‘George Santayana, the Spanish-born American philosopher, was right to point out that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’ But what he didn’t say is that those who willfully refuse to remember become moral monsters.” [Italics mine.]
Addendum: I have just been sent, and listened to, the podcast Coffee & Books where the host talks to Eddie Glaude about the writing of Begin Again. It is very interesting and you might want to give it a try: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/eddie-s-glaude-jr-talks-begin-again-james-baldwins/id1522592619?i=1000484720156
No comments:
Post a Comment