bygINCpresents, Me and James Baldwin: Down on the Cross

[sarnaa]

I've never commented on a video on youtube before. This is my first, and all I have to say is, ditto. Fantastic. Thank you. You expressed my heart and my experience. I am with you.

[bygINCpresents]

thanks for taking the time to comment. no greater compliment for a writer than to know i captured a sentiment shared by many.

[mountainlinx]

Great Reading!!

[DaniB0626]

Great video!

[konbitkreyol]

The true color of Blackness

[bygINCpresents]

@konbitkreyol Thanks. Yet it's just one color. We each have different hue to bring to blackness.

[afrocentralcity]

"slavery was a lesson they had to endure before they met their friends in the hallway, to me it was more" my friend and brother you are beautiful

[bygINCpresents]

@afrocentralcity thanks. take a look at the OIL series on my page.

[sarita210469]

For your information:

"A lover's question" is a Baldwin/Linx/Van Dormael Project.

It's a CD recording that took place 25 years ago.

Baldwin narrates his poems on music by Linx & Van Dormael.

Saw yesterday a wonderful performance of the 25th anniversary of the recording: Poetry - music - dance

Pure extasy !!!!

[bygINCpresents]

@sarita210469 i will look it up. thanks.

[shaycenter]

(Continued from previous message) 1st fixing my typo last sentence "word = world"* :). In Jame's own words clip "Malcolm X vs. James Baldwin part 6". In fairness listening again, you are describing a personal experience and that is the essence of the clip. Which makes me realize the limitations of the entangled mind. I see the light at the end of the cave and walk out to find myself in another....

[bygINCpresents]

I think you see where I was going, the individual's search for meaning in existence despite the ignominy of color, class, orientation, etc. that's the essence of james baldwin's work. he defines a humanity worth striving towards. you've got to as yourself why anyone who defines their existence thru blackness, in your eyes, is leading towards germany, 1930s. what are you afraid of? watch my playlist titled "OIL--Black and Liquid in Modernity.

[shaycenter]

I am not black or white, still was fetched by his words as a human trying to break away from the trappings of the system(s) we live in. You begin your clip on the power of words and how they resonate in the mind of the listener. Then follow with "even though I didn't act to my blackness", "proud to have recognized that blackness" ... What I referred to as "unfair", was the impression I had listening to your clip was that Mr. Baldwin was dealing or seeing the word through skin color.

[shaycenter]

Reason I came upon your clip, was somehow you being unfair to Mr. Baldwin, cause its your words under his name. I only heard him today and already I see how far you are from his message. In one clip he warned against the moral emptiness of Malcolm X's indoctrination that the black man is better, just like our friends in Germany. Still you chose the easy false conclusion for your problems.

[bygINCpresents]

i have no idea where you're going with your "unfair" comment. who is talking about hate and the kind of focused self righteousness of germany in the mid 20th century? baldwin had nothing to do with hate and neither does this vid. where are you getting that parallel? review again for your own sake, this time, with a thinking cap on.

[whalefish83]

his prose never fails to strike me down

[bygINCpresents]

which books have you read thus far?

[CR65]

I've read "The Fire Next Time," Giovanni's Room," Another Country," "If Beale Street Could Talk," "The Evidence of Things Not Seen," "Go Tell It on the Mountain,'' "Tell Me How Long The Train's Been Gone," and "Go Tell It to the Man."

[bygINCpresents]

spread the gospel according to james. much truth in his words for this and any generation.

[jbberry3923]

To especially be black is a gift, and honor,. It defines and brings to life what life are that which represent life such as beauty is define. Itsdeeper than its skin which produces shade or rather comfort which is a direct result of the sun, the source of all Life. God bless the human race

[bygINCpresents]

to recognize one's humanity regardless of color is what james baldwin hoped for us all. are you on your way?

[jbberry3923]

I hope to be on my way which must first start w/self love which is the seed to see all humanity in its essences and virtue. GOD Bless the Human Race.

[bygINCpresents]

have you read james baldwin? which books? what authors/people have been your biggest influences?

[SarahLeeAnn]

This is great.

Is this a book? I would love to read it, if you could post up the title.

[TeenageWildlife]

this is great

[bygINCpresents]

thanks for taking the time. pass the link on to other baldwin lovers.

[sunny635]

Wow! Very powerful stuff.I could listen to this clip several times and it touches me. You speak so eloquently my eyes can see what you speak of: I am definitely going to subscribe.Presently, taking my first college literature and composition class and have been requested to ready the short story Sonny's Blues. That inspired me to search for more info on James Baldwin. Would you happen to know if there are any plays or short film adaptations of his books?

[bygINCpresents]

someone recently emailed me about a play they are staging about baldwin in the san francisco area. there was a play in nyc last year about a meeting between baldwin and the photographer richard avedon. i'm sure there are one-man shows all over. i'd like to create one myself when time permits. baldwin needs to be rediscovered. you've gone your life 'til now w/o feeling his truth. and now you have. your life should never be the same. james has that affect on folk ready to transform. pass it on.

[hslovett02]

I feel you man, maybe our generation will start really seeing that great poets are very rare and highly under appreciated.

[bygINCpresents]

it's getting hard to hold on to anything, ideas especially. the world is so fast and we move on so easily. stick to anything and you become a dinosaur in 2 weeks. cell phone updates or remixes to songs that sucked in the first place. i imagine a day when you will be called a "separatist" for simply liking what you like for a long time, no matter how old it may be. try to find an old computer today? can't. doesn't make sense to produce one. but a market will emerge for the old. it must.

[hslovett02]

I love your diverse and complexed way of thinking. I hope your kids enjoy the knowledge that you try to share with the world.

[hslovett02]

James Baldwin is what literature needs back today. Thanks for posting this. You have a new subscriber.

[bygINCpresents]

couldn't agree more. with the way things change today, baldwin will be forgotten soon enough. sad truth. the civil rights generation will be dead and gone in 20-30 years and so may be their genii. forgetting past genius in this fast paced life scares me. humans have to progress, but truth like baldwin's is eternal.

[equationoracle]

feeling that comment...when you were looking to see empathy from your classmates, and saw it not! I have white folks all around me, and to this day they do not express empathy when i express grief around black african issues.

kinda makes me dislike them, even though i understand why they dont respond!

[bygINCpresents]

one cure is to help other young, black folks feel that empathy. sad that too many never deal with the pain of our history so they can take pleasure in the now and prepare to do much more in the future. keep on your line and bring others along.

[swizz85]

why don't they respond? Is it because they are indifferent to our American history?

[bygINCpresents]

it's more important that WE respond to those young people you and i know need to know as much as possible as early as possible in their human development... check out one of my middle school vids when i began appreciating AA history.

[GWOZ0Z0]

I am currently reading "Just above my head." He was a real,deep cat. Amazing how Cats like that are never mentionned in public schools,at least not the ones I went to.

[bygINCpresents]

he is the most astute observer of the american condition. knew it 50 years ago ad the sentiments right true today.

[ophachew1]

Thanks. But why'd you send me this.

[1souleagle]

That book is very mature reading... He was deliberately left out of the civil rights because of whom he was and not ashamed to BE. GREAT BOOK! He deals with issues that the black community has been able to bring themselves to the truth.

[bygINCpresents]

you're right about baldwin's personal life affecting his full inclusion in the struggle. but he was there. scholars note that. it's the black arts forefathers of the 60s who were looking for a masculine black man to champion after 400 yrs of black male emasculation. JB's truth stretched so far beyond blackness though. no matter where you are or what you're going through, an honest reading of james baldwin's essays gets at you... if you're honestly searching.

[1souleagle]

I agree: meaning what about the education we get from our own... "black arts forefathers of the 60s who were looking for a masculine black man to champion after 400 yrs of black male emasculation."

That cycle of Image has MANiFESTED itself in multiple ways, to which the black community as deceived itself in thinking HARD is GOOD! I know that you are aware of this but it is coming from different aspect of social meaning, until it has duplicated and disguise...

[1souleagle]

disguised itself... to which brings about another issue that a group of black men refuse to deal with analytically and have confused themselves with other groups of men... totally going back to the years of how a man should be represented!

[1souleagle]

CORRECTION: Have not been able to bring themselves to the truth behind the continuous DENILE!

[mineral9]

However, I believe, personally, that any good literature, or writer, touches individuals across race, time, gender, etc. Baldwin does this. He works on personal relationships and the struggle with race in Another Country. He tackles religion, and ultimately, he tells the truth in a profound way, especially in "Down at the Cross." Amazing that decades have passed through the hour glass and the statemnets that he put so eloquently still harm us today. I want my students to watch this. Thanks.

[bygINCpresents]

bugged me that james was seen as a racist. the man was speaking the truth of the ages. any race, any person, anyway, any now. know thyself. the statement always rings true. like warhol's promised 15 minutes of fame, james' truth has come to pass and is relevant now more than ever. recommending this to your students? i'm honored.

[mineral9]

I thoroughly enjoyed. As a white male, and a college instructor, I think about some of the things you present. Honestly, it pains me that most of the African American students I teach, as freshmen in college, do not know anything about their past in this country or beyond, except for slavery and snippets on segregation and the Civil Rights movement. Come to think about it, even if they don't know these the past, in a way they are still living it, in various forms.

[bygINCpresents]

the same things saddens and perplexes me.

[swizz85]

in certain parts of the country, African-American history is not taught in depth, if at all. I was educated in suburban, predominantly white, town where African-American history just was not incorporated into the curriculum. It's sad. I got to college finding myself discover so much about my history of which others had already prior knowledge.

[bygINCpresents]

the answer as always is for US to own the truth of our past... it's all US history anyway... ALL of it.

[andewanderer]

Monsieur Baldwin just talks to you man. He lived and wrote bravely.

Check out Giovanni's Room and Another Country -- I'm currently reading that in another language and it moves me all over again.

[bygINCpresents]

start with FIRE and move on. really look at what he's saying and you'll see he could be talking to this time, any time. that's a how attuned i think the man was to the human condition, especially for the oppressed.

[bygINCpresents]

read, The Fire Next Time. read whatever you can get your hands on. you'll see much truth, so much relevance to this world of ours. truth needs to be searched for within the soul of each man. that's the essence of his work... i'm a a fan of baldwin's essays and prose. The Fire is, to my mind, his best.

[alyceclover]

Sad. James Brown: Say It Loud I'm Black and I'm Proud. Think it was Rev. Jackson: I am somebody! Sad that even now workers are being mistreated to build up the rich jet set luxury resort in Dubai. Wealthy such as Bush/Cheney/Clintons are getting richer off the backs of the workers blood, sweat and tears. Some things never seem to change.

[bygINCpresents]

look at my "struggle for survival" vid. you might like the content.

[CityzenJane]

Ya know - I grew up in an overtly racist home. Not KKK or anything, so I reacted against that...I didn't discuss either man with my family - but I did often tell them off in my own right, spurred on by what I was reading and hearing. As for my friends who were mostly white, we were too busy messing up our own lives to mess with anyone else, pretty apathetic. I think I was the only one I know who was overtly political.

[1souleagle]

DAmn! Hell of perspective. Digg yo mess!

[bygINCpresents]

i dug out of it. that's my call to anyone watching.

[1souleagle]

Blessings! Much respect! I am woman, but when I try to talk to the average black man he tries to take me around the corner...If I speak with intellect they by their time to see if they think that its about a game of sex...If I talk about JAMES BALDWIN, they look me up side my head and say, "WHO...THAT GAY NIGGA"...how far have come!?

A BLACK MAN CANT GET NO RESPECT, BECAUSE THE "WOM(B)MAN" tO WHICH he was born from DOESNT GET IT"

LOV U!

LOV YOUR MIND!

[vs1142]

@1souleagle You're spending time with and talking to the wrong black men.

[1souleagle]

@vs1142 Ignorant of you. I don't spend time with the wrong black men and don't waste time with ignorant people... this was commented on 2 years dated. Know your Place. In the ear of a FOOL!

[CityzenJane]

"i do like zygmunt bauman's ideas on liquid modernity."

have to look him up!

[bygINCpresents]

he has written a book a year since the late 90s dealing with the modern condition. he encapsulated my life, my dread, things i could never put into words.

[larryfowler40]

A thank you very much for your comments about the my page.

I'd definitely enjoyed your piece of the fire next time and James Baldwin. It was reading the fire next time in 1992 but certainly open my eyes to James Baldwin and to myself. Fortunate as I was to grow up in the suburbs of Piscataway New Jersey, I was not so fortunate to no great writers such as Mr. Baldwin, W. E. B. Dubois, and other black writers.

You have inspired me to do more of the work that I started back in 1992.

[tigeraconsciente]

I can say that I didn't truly truly engage in literature and history until after high school, when I "came to" and learned about the systematics of oppression- figured out what that "nameless authority" really was..

[tigeraconsciente]

Wow.. I can identify with a lot of this.. the self-negation that took place through schooling, the awareness of an existence of some "nameless authority" I couldn't quite put my finger on yet somehow I felt it and I knew it was there. My reaction to all of the history and literature I couldn't identify with was to disengage..

[bygINCpresents]

i couldn't deal with baldwin, du bois, any of them until college. the souls of black folks was there is my library all my life. still haven't read thru the damn thing. i understand enough about myself to know what lay in the text. the secrets of our great literary works are alive in our bones if we critically assess them. still now, i don't read as much as i need to. i do like zygmunt bauman's ideas on liquid modernity.

[kamiiyathepoet]

true word.

[kamiiyathepoet]

Great video, you told a million stories in ten minutes.

[3MONKFISH]

I agree. Baldwin's writing will always be a big influence in my life. If everyone in the world (white or black) would read "Nobody Know's My Name", maybe, just maybe there would be less racism in the world. Regardless of wether some view the situation better today or not, it still exists.

[CityzenJane]

I started reading him when I was about 15, and he was a huge influence my ability to be angry, whole, demand and give respect, to listen,to see through all the lies...to keep trying to understand and learn and not be satisfied with pat answers about why things were the way they were...are the way they are...

[93075]

The truth is you and I can say all day that we are equal or the same but in this world we are different. It seems like regardless to what race it be or were they come from soon as they come around us they look at us as if they saw a video brain washing them that we are the lowest of the low and that's just how it is.

[CityzenJane]

Can you elaborate?

Who are "they"....

[CityzenJane]

If I implied we were the same in choice or opportunity - that was not my intention. I know just the fact that I have white skin I have priveldges that I still take for granted, I think I am aware of them - and so do not think for a minute that I live in a meritocracy. That said, what I meant by my appreciation for Malcolm X and James Baldwin

[CityzenJane]

was that they demanded and commanded deep respect in my and a desire to know the WHOLE truth of life in America, and so they pushed me down a path to awareness...for which I am grateful, as any student is for a great teacher.

[bygINCpresents]

have you found the same inquisitive soul-searching in white writers on the american condition? who?

[bygINCpresents]

i understand what you're getting at. i did not live mark mathabane's world, but i felt his road through south african apartheid. never met the polish-born zygmunt bauman or know exactly how he lives as a sociologist in england, but i get him. i appreciate the truth as he sees it.

[bygINCpresents]

i think a lot of that "look" is us going into a situation expecting that attitude and only that attitude. know yourself on the first encounter and a lot of the looks fade away. yes, be on guard, but armed with the truth of and in you. folks, no matter the color, will have to see or look for what you shine through. if they can't... f--k 'em.

[CityzenJane]

fuck em indeed. but i do think it is part of the damage done to Black people that they have come to expect that look in most cases, and sometimes they look at themselves with that look... ya know?

As for white writers that fearlessly search the soul of America - I can't honestly think of one... Melville maybe? Twain? hints of it - but honestly I havent dissected either.

[bygINCpresents]

james spoke truth plain and simple, he understood the human condition like no other writer i've encountered. his ideas are needed more today. 20 yrs after his death there needs to be a baldwin revival.

[CityzenJane]

YES!!!! He was a universal man and SO was Malcolm towards the end. The light coming from that man's eyes on his return form Mecca - THAT light is why he was killed...and that light was HOPE and LOVE. Not love for his oppressor, but deep love beyond that oppression... after ALL he had been through he transcended.

[CityzenJane]

I think what I like about Malcolm X and Baldwin is they set their stare at everyone, judged everyone, berated everyone. They did not waste time on imagining though that their enemies would change. They changed themselves, they chose to live fully inspite of what their enemies would have them do - die, fade away rot in jail...succumb.

[Yusuf76us]

Malcolm was filled with love and hope far sooner than his trip to Mecca, Malcolm's entire body of work was the direct result of his love and hope for his people.

[Yusuf76us]

I agree

[kamiiyathepoet]

Sometimes I feel like god has given me all the power in the world to fight a battle that I will never win until I die. That sounds like it doesn't make sense. But it's not supposed to. It's the feeling. The feeling that white people don't understand, that makes an individual angry and upset with themselves and others. That makes a person not want to love god, because it feels like god has never loved you, but I know that is not true.

[kamiiyathepoet]

I'm a young black woman, and I want to know the same thing, I want answers, and I feel as if every I turn to, adults, teachers, or whomever are all asking the same question, but I feel like if I ask ALLAH, he will think I am being selfish. I just want to know why I have to live as the powerless, the underdog, the slave, the unpretty, and the unintelligent and

this world where all you are is another addition to a "fact" based statistic.

[kamiiyathepoet]

"White people have all the power in America, and why god? They have the resources to determine what the rest of the world could do and not do."

[93075]

93075 cont-Then you have some people that don't have a clue of what goes on here and have something negative to say. Then you have people from here that's just brainwashed into thinking that they won't and can't be nothing. I remember bein 7yrs old and a policeman told me to use the bathroom on myself because my mother was caught stealing. What do you think that did to me?

[bygINCpresents]

have you found folks who have a grasp on what you felt? i needto hear from/about those tales. what are you doing now? tell me you're out of, not just the place, i'm talking about the mental slums. folks take that with them to the heiights of the world. tell me you're out of your former self... please share more.

[93075]

Truthfully I'm out of it to a degree, because I've learned that not all people are ignorant. It still hurts though, having a heart that I have it's hard everyday to live in society. I do know that it's the choices I make in life effects my future, but what about my people in general I think that's why I'm still stuck I love them to much. Sometimes I hate my heart and I know thats not a good word (hate)

[93075]

Yes I know people black men who knows and understand how I feel about this topic so they come to me thursting for knowledge. I learn from them and they learn from me. It's hard to get across 2 someone whose lived life like me 2 get right when they don't know where to begin and I have no answer for them. I can say get a job, but it's not up to me to give them one, it's society and you already know, or do you?

[CityzenJane]

I think one of the most amazing things about youtube is it takes away the middle man...I'm "white" and middle class, people who are poor and live in communities that have been starved of resources have up until very recently only been represented by old rich white men...and not very accurately. But now you can speak directly to me and visa versa....so let the truth free!

[CityzenJane]

This is beautifully done(sorry couldn't load it last night) So well written. And yes the affect Baldwin had on me was to crack me open.

You're right about the identity that I did not possess and how that impeeded some of my understanding - but how did I identify with Baldwin and Malcom X

[CityzenJane]

- because strangely I did. And NOT to avoid the emotional implications of being white...but to take in both truths - all of truth. Not to shy away from it. Thanks for this gorgeous...looking forward to MORE!!!

He was also queer as hell - I think it's just his outsideness all around that made him such a massive soul.

[bygINCpresents]

FROM JANE...

"was that they demanded and commanded deep respect in my and a desire to know the WHOLE truth of life in America, and so they pushed me down a path to awareness...for which I am grateful, as any student is for a great teacher

[93075]

Thank you for sharing this with me. I've lived in the slums all of my life and the choices I've made kept me there. If anybody can relate to it it's definitely me. It was planned carefully and through my eyes it's working out successfully. I don't like when people all colors judge people that grew up here, yes some made it out but forgot all about us. Then you have some that never experienced it and have something negative to say.

[irkone]

There are many scholars who are anarchists. For one, Noam Chomsky - a professor at MIT who has "revolutionized the field of linguistics," and is "arguably the most important intellectual alive today." The videos in my profile do not sum up the entirety of my beliefs. They are information about the subject at hand as are most videos or books I explore. The subject being alternatives to our present cultural, socio-economic system responsible for thousands of years of tyranny.

[bygINCpresents]

i know about noam. i've written about how listening to his "attack on the working class" 1999 or so got me up and thinking. like you, i know there are salient voices out there feeling the same impetus. as a group, we just have yet to be moved. my goal is to move them... us. i have a different means. irkone, our ends are the same. i just have to "move" folks differently.

[irkone]

The reason I responded promptly was because your video touched me. I was relieved someone else felt similar to how I have felt, and would not be surprised if hordes of others feel the same. It just clicked - this video is essential to winning the hearts and minds of the same tormented hearts and minds part of this common culture - an honest confession of emotional reaction to historic and daily events.

[bygINCpresents]

i want you to know taht i agree with everything you say. i'm not that naive. i know that a change must come. we are in that historical cycle where the barbarians have been guarding the gates for too long. the people want to get back in. the big house was there's. they must get it back.

[bygINCpresents]

the act of giving is not unidirectional, right. you have to have the audience in mind. all their faults. all their needs. they have been told to divorce emotion from their humanity and think in terms of production, economy. they want us to be machines. iwant us to be hman again this century or we will be gone by 2050.

[bygINCpresents]

james, me and anarchism don't seem to go together. i have to believe in hope, irkone, because i care about the young. in your anarchism posts, i see you steering them down a path. i like the fact that you are challenging them to look at this STATE through clearer eyes. i will never go as far as anarchy. i believe in personal liberation. teh war now is for the hearts and minds. you have to talk about that, irkone. what about the hearts and minds? where do you stand betwix the two?

[bygINCpresents]

i looked over the other paragraphs. don't know, irkone. anyone reading them would need more. they had to come from a larger text i don't have access to so can't bring all i need to the reading. what about the "me and bladwin" video made you want to respond? as a first time youtuber, i must know what worked. i jumped over to your page and saw the stuff on anarchism. me and baldwin come at the future from a different vein... (2bcont.)

[irkone]

Very compassionate. We're told if you are depressed in this current society, there is something wrong with you, not with society. That this culture is not

responsible for your sorrow or sympathy for enslaved and murdered ancestry. No, we suffer from mental disorders, chemical unbalances, depression - to be

cured with synthetic and manufactured drugs created by the same elites responsible for cultural annihilation (and who profit immensely from it).

[bygINCpresents]

where is all this coming from? what have you been writing? who have you been reading? how long have these thoughts been in you? don't know if you're writing me now to engage or let out. let me know, please.

[irkone]

I posted 4 more paragraphs. I can re-post it if there were some error. I have been reading A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES by Howard Zinn, ENDGAME by Derrick Jensen, OUR STOLEN FUTURE by theo colborn, dianne dumanoski and john peterson myers, FAILED STATES by Noam Chomsky, ECO-ECONOMY by Lester Brown, listening to 99.5 WBAI Pacifica Radio (Democracy NOW!), watching documentaries and Youtube/Google footage/clips. Now reading up on all the "ISMs" out there as alternatives to capitalism.

[CityzenJane]

Wasn't it Freud who said,

"basically my job is to adjust people to an unjust society..."