I wonder if James Baldwin’s letter would be considered hate speech these days?
Below is an excerpt from Baldwin’s MY DUNGEON SHOOK LETTER TO MY NEPHEW ON THE ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE EMANICIPATION.
”…Know whence you came. If you know whence your came, there is really no limit to where you can go. The details and symbols of your life have been deliberately constructed to make you believe what white people say about you. Please try to remember that what that believe, as well as what they do and cause you to endure, does not testify to your inferiority but to their inhumanity and fear. Please try to be clear, dear James, though the storm which rages about your youthful head today, about the reality which lies behind the words acceptance and integration. There is no reason for you to try to become like white people and there is no basis whatever for their impertinent assumption that they must accept you. The really terrible thing, old buddy, is that you must accept them. And I mean that very seriously. You must accept them and accept them with love. For these innocent people have no other hope. They are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they cannot be released from it. They have had to believe for so many years, and for innumerable reasons, that black men are inferior to white men.
Many of them, indeed, know better, but, as you will discover, people find it very difficult to act on what they know. To act is to be committed, and to be committed is to be in danger. In this case, the danger, in the minds of most white Americans, is the loss of identity. Try to imagine how you would feel if you woke up one morning to find the sun shinning and all the stars aflame. You would be frightened because it is our of the order of nature. Any upheaval in the universe is terrifying because it so profoundly attacks one’s sense of one’s own reality. Well, the black man has functioned in the white man’s world as a fixed star, as an immovable pillar: and as he moves out of his place, heaven and earth are shaken to their foundations. Read More »
Sean Bell
So the verdict was handed down Wednesday. Not guilty. Black man murdered, excuse me, SLAUGHTERED by a gang of police officers and they walk away unpunished. And why? Because the officers claim they overheard one of the guys say, “Yo go get my gun!” (Sorry but that sounds a bit suspect to me. Who screams that out? That is so hollywood.) Anyway, I understand that being a police officer is a dangerous job but I have this inherit distrust of people in that profession. I make no apologies for that considering the things I have personally witnessed. Cases like these surely do not help.
The most important part that I feel no one is discussing is the WAY Sean Bell was killed. One officer fired 31 shots. THIRTY ONE??? Police officers are professionals. They have been trained to handle situations like these or so I thought. If no one is shooting back at you, WHY is there a need to continue shooting? This officer RELOADED! That is just inhumane. There is no justification for that type of ambush. NONE.
It just proves that this country thinks the lives of blacks are cheap and easily wasted. I have nothing else to say on this. Lauryn Hill said it best:
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