Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
As a child, I have always enjoyed the oracles, and even dreamed about dating a few. But when you learn the teachings of Buddhist/ Gnostic Christianity. That childhood dream was even more unrealistic. But I still dream about oracles. Even more when you communicate for positive answers from my own government.
When will our government realize that; they are only calling for yes men. (But i know i did best in my keep the vows.)
If only we had more people like James; willing to be the intermediate in the mist of darkness and conflicts within social justice system. His words open hearts, raises hope for a chance for possible solutions within in clear passionate discernment; He inspires progress vs indifference and ego centralism. "James" could bring light to any conflict.
(If their was a roster for that job. I would t love to make that list!)
This man is brilliant, even in death. In this segment he enunciates the dilemma W.E.B.DuBois wrestles with in "The Souls of Black Folks", namely "the double-consciousness" of Black folks in America; being American (or White minded) and Negro (which basically translates as one treated as an outsider in America). With the availability of the internet, why do we whine about them not teaching our young about people such as Baldwin. That's our duty. I notice Asians and Jews have their own schools.
Obama took office Jan 09, national debt was $10,626,000,000,000.
Fed owes a whole lot more now, including to China, $4,247,000,000,000 in just 945 days. The fastest increase under any president ever.
Obama says yes, we can get control of the debt. But every time he says that he adds trillions of $-$ in infrastructure repairs R needed . With interest rates so low, according to the thinking of Obama , now is the time to borrow more!
Well to my way of thin kin' it wasn't the Black man's penis Old Massa envied ,but the Black Man's Brain.Why else would old massa make it unlawful for the slave( the Field Negro,the house negro sometimes got some learnin'lol) to learn how to read/write??Too many House Negroes like Oprah OBOMBA,the Two Brown Rice (Condi/Susan) CONcubines and Lyin Colon Powell, today not enough of the Field Negro Leaders allowed to be Heard,just the Whitewashed Jesse and Al
I'm a 49 year old California native who just picked up a Library of Congress Baldwin collection last week at my local library, and I'm blown away by his enormous talent. Never read a word of his before...now I can't put it down. The man was fucking brilliant, he could not handle the "moral monsters" that constituted the the white racists that existed then and still do today.
I just realized how racist ive been my whole life....
even though I grew up in a black neighborhood, with liberal parents, it doesn't matter. I've been so racist towards these people even when I was being friendly to them. I just realized I thought of them all as cartoon-like people, with canned responses, reactions, statements, and behaviors. I caught myself saying " He's so well-spoken." And why should that be a surprise rather than what I expected? Because he is black. Lord help me.
Severe Civil rights crimes are committed in Canada by authorities against citizens who try to use their constitutional civil right of not talking to them. This anti-democracy, authority attacks happen with lazer/tazer type guns which work through concrete walls of your home from outside or even the floor above. They rape women with these high power guns, also abuse their access to high ranking officials giving them one side of false story against citizen who questions their abuse of power.
why arent young black people taught about men like CLR James, or James Baldwin. Malcolm x is rarely mentioned, even less is afrocentrism. I didnt learn about afrocentrism until my philosophy class in college. We know Martin Luther King, but even his true character is kept secret. More black children need to know about the black intellectuals who have come before now, who here now. Obama is not enough, do they know WEB Dubious? Zora Neale Hurston? Bayard Rustin? I think not.
@UtopiaMinor666 You said it. It's a shame to not hear young African American students wanting to become scientists, engineers, artists, etc. Many want to be in singing, acting, or sports.
@UtopiaMinor666 I am a white guy who teaches at a small public college in a big city. I'm often shocked at the low level of knowledge exhibited by my Afro-American students concerning Afro-American history & its major figures. Worse, many of them seem to think it unimportant to know about the figures you've listed. I read James Baldwin's Notes of Native Son and The Autobiography of Malcolm X when I was 17, not because some teacher told me to do so, but out of curiousity & interest.
@bapyou i know what you mean. I recently re-read Bill Cosby's "pound Cake" speech, and though it was rather scathing, he said what was true. Black americans, and i see it in my own family, have become complacent (not all of us) within our "re-education." We have our own clothing, speech, and perspective, but i for one do not fall within those norms. I love science and history and poetry, but saddly i find less blacks who do. Im 22, still in college, and perhaps that is a reason? I wont lose hope
@UtopiaMinor666 "I love science and history and poetry, but saddly i find less blacks who do."
My experience has brought me into contact with black folks who are Phds in physics or doctors and many other type of professional. Be who you are. The idea that black folks are only good for sports or entertainment is simply asinine. Science? History? Poetry? I'm there. You should be too. As Jimi Hendrix said, "I'm the one who's got to die when it's time for me to die."
@bapyou i can only judge from my peers, and through my limited experience, but i did not mean those assertions as any sort of oversimplification or generalization, only through experience. Im aware there are many blacks who share my interests, like Neil DeGrasse Tyson or Cornell West. By the way, that Hendrix quote is one of my favorites, and its proceeds one of my favorite hendrix tracks. Right on!
@UtopiaMinor666 . I completely agree. Its up to us to pass on this knowledge to our progeny. The idea that the public school system can provide a proper education is ludicrous; and especially in the case of black Americans its beyond ludicrous. The only black identity taught in Public School is of the slave and the oppressed minority. Black children receive NO empowering education especially in the case of the true black heros of America and pre and post colonial Africa.
@UtopiaMinor666 You forgot A. Phillip Randolph. He helped to desegregate the military and organized mass marches, and solidified a union for people. Also, lesser known groups like Deacons for Defense. Man, there's a whole history of greatness that people don't know. Hell i'm still learning. I too didn't learn this stuff till college. Imagine if this information was infused into the education of children at an early age.
@UtopiaMinor666 The community college that I am currently attending has an African American History course...? Apparently there's AFRICAN American history, and then there's American, or Revisionist, history. One is watered down, the other turns a blind eye. If white children were taught the unedited version, we would find out that our ancestors were raping, lying, genocidal filth. If black youth were taught the truth, they may become empowered personally and culturally. They can't have that
@UtopiaMinor666 TOP 10 most ignorant comments ever..be honest how many black people or children do you encounter on a daily basis?..I bet the answer is not too many and I can also bet that your simple mindedness is solely based off of what you have seen on TV or the 1 or 2 black people you have come across in life..black people, similar to whichever culture u belong 2, proudly learn their history at a very early age.. btw do the names Michael Dyson and Cornel West ring a bell?..DONT GENERALIZE!!
@VPDREAM well as a black person myself I have, and do continue to run into a large amount of black people on a daily basis, it appears Im not the one generalizing. In fact, my assertions are proven more factual than yours have of me. Now what i have seen of black men and women on television--for example sitcoms--are embraced by black people by large marginsh, not because they appeal to our intellectual and forgotten history, but because they are superficial, but also relatable
@VPDREAM an it is evident to me that you assumed me to be just another frivolous white person who wants to embrace this historical injustice. These injustices strike me as they do any other person who takes intrest, but you know what ive said is true and the mentioning of two black people (dyson and west) mean very little. I probability--and thru time--some future person would use those men as examples as to how little young blacks know. im aware of those. some of us know, but not enough.
@UtopiaMinor666 I teach Malcolm X in my undergraduate English courses and students make the same point: "Why haven't we learned of him yet?" Silly America--that's why.
@UtopiaMinor666 i agree. the best way to change this is to become a teacher yourself and to teach this. i did. i teach history and georgraphy, always keeping the African, Native, Latino, and Asian, and even poor white perspectives in the forefront
@UtopiaMinor666 I agree with you but I don't think just more black people need to learn about these people, North America and the World needs to learn about these people...
I think the main problem is that by learning about these people we also learn the truth behind government oppression and the corruption our incompetent leaders wallow in ... that is why the great human beings are hidden from the masses...
@UtopiaMinor666 Young blacks are interested in Lil' Wayne, Jay-Z, Beyonce, etc., and various sports figures. They're also interested in flash mobs in which they can run wild and steal other people's property. They certainly aren't interested in James Baldwin or Malcolm X.
@UtopiaMinor666 It's also a sad thing that white young people are not being exposed to these critical thinkers and historical figures or to the important so-called white progressive and revolutionary thinkers that would also open their minds. Blood thirsty capitalism and the concentration of media ownership are dominant forces that we must work around, mitigate, and ultimately downstroy, as Marley puts it. Baldwin is an interesting and complex man. Thanx 4 posting.
Is this not the mirror, if not the elephant ever present in the room...is for white folk to strip themselves of this innate , not sense (insane sense of supremacy), it is behind every war, every nation being of third world status,whatever that means, where there is poverty in the world look who's on top....he is as brutally honest as Chris Hitchins,
This fool's a fake-ass nigga. Don't you know he's a faggotass nigga. Diss'n the Nation, fool ass. The MH Elijah Muhammad spoke the truth, the krakkka isa devil.
Yes he was an intellectual, a civil right activist, and a good writer-- but why did he have to choose to be gay? You cant claim intellectuallism when you choose abomination. The bible says it.
@Basra2020 Chose to be gay? You serious? Sexual orientation is decided in the fetus stage of development... no choice... I guess he chose to be black as well right? In a country and time when being either could be a death sentence... the only abomination is a fool who takes 2,000 year old fables in place of free thought...
@Jester2415 Jester it is not stated in the bible that being black is an abomination. One is born black or white, but one is not born gay. Homosexuality is a purely human choice, it is a sin according to the bibble. As far as homosexuality being not a choice, and biological, well---maybe so. But when a man stops being a man, and that is not marrying a woman and having a family--that man made a choice of a life of sin. Baldwin's all good qualities are over-shadowed by his perverse lifestyle.
@Basra2020 Free will is an illusion. There is no choice in anything, our genes decide who we are and how we think. If you were born in India you'd be Buddhist or Muslim, location is the number one determiner of creed. Morality is relative, what you believe is wrong is not universal truth, other cultures revere and tolerate what you refer to as sin. Do you have empirical evidence to support any of your claims? Facts, studies, numbers? Talking snakes, brush fires, and donkeys won't cut it...
Questions: Are you stating facts? Sexual Orientation decided in the womb? Really? I mean I understand your points, your positioning. But empiricism is itself a kind of ideology just as deadly as religious fundamentalism.
@Chico313 The leading theory has to do a lot with hormone levels in a woman's body while she is pregnant, statistically the chances go up that the boy she is carrying will be gay after each male child she has previously given birth too, why? Her hormone levels have changed, it's basically a defense mechanism to keep the baby(foreign body) from being rejected by the mother before term... it's an evolutionary adaptation... I don't support any "ism" only rational thought, meaning by the numbers...
@Jester2415: I ask first: what are the assumptions allowing you make such a statement? Do you claim to be objective? No free will, isn't that a metaphysical claim? How can you make such a sweeping statement...I pick up this cup because my genes decided it; i type this words because my genes decided it?
@Chico313 1. Science 2. I'm a Nihilist, I don't believe people SHOULD think or act a certain way, so yes I have nothing to gain or profit from you agreeing with me 3. It's an evolutionary claim 4. Simple because the numbers never lie, only people. 5. Your genes dictate how your brain was formed, structured, your thought process: what you think about, how and why you think about it, and the amount of time you spend thinking about it. 6. Yes, or more specifically your brain
@Jester2415: ( I am speaking specifically to point 6) Let me see if I have a handle on the implications of this statement. I am my brain, nothing else. Because I am nothing but these neurons and synapses, I pick up this cup and it is not "I" that decides to move my hand to pick up the cup but my brain, which is all that I am (?). Therefore picking up the cup is not an empty intention I've initiated but mechanisms of the brain at work, for my brain is structured to want to pick up an empty cup?
@Chico313 In short yes... we are biological machines, programed by our DNA and manipulated by our sensory organs...
"it is not "I" that decides to move my hand" - What is this "I" you are referring to? Your conscientiousness? You can't separate your mind from your brain, one begets the other.
@Jester2415 Christ me, who are you then? An "I" is an aggregation of attitudes, beliefs and memories sustained over a finite span of time. Are you not a proponent of rational thought? Have you ever reflected on your memories and past feelings, and, naturally, redirected these phenomenon back to the present being? This self-examination is the delicate construction of a self, an I, identity. I don't know what you refer to by conscientiousness, do you mean awareness?
@Chico313 I am animal no more no less. "An "I" is an aggregation of attitudes, beliefs and memories sustained over a finite span of time." - really? my head hurts, you just made that up... Redirected memories and past feelings to a present being? Huh? You mean like when a computer uses a search engine?
@Jester2415: Yes that right I did just make it up. You asked what an was and I gave you a rational answer...does your head hurt because you don't understand? I know that is not the case with you though, your much too sharp for that. Nothing in that proposition(An "I" is...") is illogical (if so please explain). My friend, if you think the act of reflecting on memories is essentially the same as a computer compiling data, then I feel the discourse we have presently built must end.
@Chico313 You made up a definition of something that you have no evidence/data exists... The "i" you are referring to exists only cuz you want it too... sounds like faith to me...
@Jester2415: Okay. Okay. Its funny because I agree with you in some sense, specifically thoughts influenced by Sartre's work. And it is a form of faith--a faith you experience, the evidence in living. But as I said before I am sorry for you, and myself: I failed to effectively communicate with you, and so I have failed to invoke my own humanity to the degree that I can reach across the boundaries of dogma and ideology.
@Jester2415: Where are the numbers and facts that disregard free will? You still haven't answered my question. I move across the country because of what ? My brain firing and operating to produce the option and choice, the situation of the leaving, and this thus proves that I have no free will...? Is that not tenuous logic, brittle rational thought? To point 5: is their a philosophy gene then? A gene for reflection?
@Chico313 Don't have the space or time to educate you... wish I did. Animals seek dominance, control, the implications of no free will scares most people because it means a lack of control... the social system falls apart... I can't break denial that strong...
"is their a philosophy gene then? A gene for reflection?" there just might be one or two...
@Jester2415: I appreciate your sarcasm, I really do. But I have responded to your comments because I felt you were educated on the topic, able to respond intelligently and honestly.
Denial? I have no problem being an animal. We are rational animals. Fine. I only claim freedom as a rational animal, unlike a Lion, for example, that screws when it has the urge to with out reserve, I can negate this my urge to engage in fornication. What is this? Can you please address my points?
@Chico313 The average man thinks about sex every 17 seconds, not because he wants too but because of hormones... I'd say we humans do a lot more screwing than any lion, and unlike them we aren't seasonal maters, so we fornicate all year round despite being "rational animals" without much reservation giving the current population numbers, the porn industry is a multi-billion dollar industry so it's save to say there is a lot self fornication going on too
@Jester2415@Jester2415: Did I say that people don't fuck proper? And I am willing to wager that humans do not screw more than a lion. How much are you willing to bet? A Lion mating bout can last for a couple of days and they copulate twenty to forty times. Are you hitting the sheets like that? I doubt it. Oh, and Lions do not mate at any specific time in the year by the way.
@Chico313 I'll take that bet and all cats go through periods of heat look it up, females go into heat often right after cubs ween, its why male lions will kill rival cubs in the spring... to force their heat cycle.
@Jester2415: To point 1, 2, and 4: How can people not lie? So you speak from space of objectivity, you claim to candidly grapple with the numbers, while others simply manipulate the raw facts. No, bruh. Everyone has prejudices, preconceived notions, the influence of culture upon the activity of science is a constant distortion. Then, you have no culture? No particular experiences that dispose you to your thinking, this Nihilism, this pure scientific "objectivity" you grasp?
@Chico313 "Everyone has prejudices, preconceived notions, the influence of culture upon the activity of science is a constant distortion." - So you're saying we have no free will in this matter, no choice in objectivity? Can't argue with that. Though I guess our justice system falls apart then too if it's impossible to be objective... looks like no jury duty for you
@Jester2415 I find this response puerile. I am speaking very specifically to science as a practice, and you have conflated my claim with the function of the judicial system. This is another discussion completely, but of course preconceived notions play into our judicial system, part of the reason black and brown people have such an astronomical high conviction rate (just another nigger or speck but if it was a white boy from the suburbs he gets off easy...[forgive the simplification of things])
@Chico313 you said there can be no objectivity in science... that is an absolute statement... but you retracted it so I'll let it slide... but you seem to harbor a world view that contradicts a choice in objectivity... if humans are such rational animals why do they impose negative emotional beliefs on others, there is no scientific data to support race, we humans are almost genetically the same?
@Jester2415 I do believe I am speaking to the application of raw facts, which is what you are doing, interpreting numbers and formulating a very comprehensive world view. Yep, numbers are objective, but, in our case, you aren't objective at all, you have a startling list of assumptions and theoretical leaps of faith to under-gird your statements about determinism and the negation of free will. Forgive me if I was back sliding for I do believe at some level science is objective.
@Chico313 You haven't used a single raw fact yet my friend... the one clinging to their faith is you... but I don't blame you, denial is the road most often traveled...
@Jester2415: I digress. I am asserting that science does not occur in a vacuum. So science is biased in some sense, though it does rightly have a claim to objectivity, some forms of science, specifically, and how the results are interpreted and applied to human beings is problematic. And no we don't choose our culture, I never said I didn't believe in contingency.
@Chico313 We also don't choose our place of birth, parents, race, gender, sexual orientation, body type, genes, religion(number one factor in deciding what creed someone will be is the culture they are born into)... not much we have control over huh, but we still have cups...
@Jester2415:Yet you are placed in a situation where you can decide, let this rational thinking you are such a proponent of, change things. All of what you listed I gladly accept, but continuing to practice a religion, choosing to be gay, overcoming the ignorances of your parents, loving your body--these points exceeds their determined origination. Yes, we have cups and freedom and fucking, on occasion. Were you Christian? If so, I take you have discarded this old ideology? Freely, eh?
@Jester2415 In conclusion: It seems you do have ideology, even if you disavow any such talk of ideology. Nihilism: hopelessness, no belief; to embrace nothing (?). I think, which is to say I believe, that everyone has beliefs, do you not believe that there is nothing to believe in, nothing to hope for? Or do you believe that your thinking is Truth, and acquaintance with Reality?
@Chico313 Belief requires a leap in faith by definition, not to be confused with think, assume, guess, and theorize... which require some facts or data to be considered rational... belief requires none... Your definition of Nihilism is false and reeks of a lack of understanding... I support rational thought, how is that hopeless? I hold no monopoly on truth, I am just an animal after all, but I question everything in a pursuit for a clearer understanding of our reality.
@Jester2415 I have no problem admitting my error. Please educate me and provide a definition of nihilism, exactness would be nice. Interesting you claim to be in pursuit of a clearer understanding of reality. If, as you asserted in a comment above, that the world cannot function without free will, then how can determinism elucidate anything about a world that is completely invested in free will--doesn't this constitute a reality separate from your reality of will-less, string puppets?
@Chico313 Nihilism is what you get when you stripe away all human artificial constructions used to imposed meaning, purpose, and beliefs on the world, the irrational thought man has constructed his world around, (whether that be supernatural deities or a class system) it is a form of anti-denial and rational understanding
There is no end game in evolution.. only more change... we all have strings might as well dance along...
@Jester2415:Shall we turn to Nietzsche (?) : “Every belief, every considering something-true is necessarily false because there is simply no true world." Don't you hold your "facts," not to mention there application, as true? How can you be a nihilist if you have not yet decimated these vestiges of meaning, value, truth...for don't you claim these things in your rational understanding? Does not Nietzsche subvert the ideology of science?
@Chico313 Nietzsche did not invent Nihilism only popularized his version of it, and he doesn't hold a monopoly on it's definition... Mine is a far more modern... your twisting the definition of "truth". I reject man made notions of truth, the truth I accept is what makes the universe function, laws in physics...
@Jester2415: Nietzsche did not popularize nihilism, my friend. Nihilism was popularized during the existentialist movement in French in 40s and 50s by Satre, Camu, De Beauvoir, and etc. Or are you referring to the postmodern brand of nihilism, Lyotard and Braudrillard for example. But I do believe the first record instant of nihilism, in philosophical sense, began with Max Stirner. You can look it up, if you please. Again provide a definition that is clear, perhaps a genealogy of your usage
@Chico313 What are you talking about, Nietzsche inspired an entire generational movement and way of thought... the Nazi movement took heavily from him for an example... My definition was clear as day... not my fault you can't comprehend it...
@Jester2415 Okay, I admit I can't comprehend it. Have you read Nietzsche? Do you know what text he began to speak of nihilism? I haven't read his texts, accept for a bit of Gay Wisdom...please freely direct me.
@Basra2020 The bible is full of a lot of things and most thinking people, intelligent people and intellectuals don't believe most of it. He did not choose to be gay any more than I chose to be straight, like me he was born that way and embraced it. He is a wonderful being and I love him very much for what he did and for having the courage to do it. I feel sorry for those that wrap their intolerance in a religious cloak.
Thank you so much for your words. Nothing has progressed for the better, nor changed. The evolutionary state of being for African Americans will be a great hardship. Many do not wish excel or to improve outside of materialism and superficial ways. The Intellect of the "Black" community and nation is underground, it struggles to maintain support.
I support anyone who seeks a better solution, even if it means to leave your people behind as a way to uplift them, regarding the future.
@catjohnson007 He didn't give up on it entirely. He's said he moved to write outside the context of an "American negro"... and write as a "foreigner".
speaking as a gay African American male who often feels suicidal even in this era, god almighty what this man had to go through being raised in poverty as a gay African American male and live through socially acceptable anti-black mistreatment era that only gradually ended in the 1970s
@Tonetare Draw strength from his example Tone. Also I'd recommend reading the Story of a Mr Bayard Rustin. He was the Godfather of the Civil Rights movement. The man all the great Civil Rights leaders turned to for strategic advice and organisation, yet he was kept in the background because of his sexuality. A brilliant man marginalised by both white AND black society for nothing other than his nature. More than one person should have to take. He's a new hero of mine. Take care mate
@LeBigMacDaddy@LeBigMacDaddy I was very awestruck when I first heard of James Baldwin a month or so ago because you just never hear about gay black men back in those times because I guess they were all thrusts into the background because of their sexuality. It's heartbreaking how one can be demonized by society because of they're very nature. I do thank you greatly for this recommendation about Mr Bayard Rustin. I can use all the inspiration and leadership by example I can.
@Tonetare No probs Tonetare, ever since I heard of Mr Rustin's story I've been telling anyone who'll listen. James Baldwin is of the same mould, a man of remarkable dignity in the face of so much oppression. I'm not a gay man myself but I have a gay friend I hang out with who's the sweetest, nicest, funniest guy I know and I see the shit he has to put up with and it sickens me that people can judge a man for which gender he chooses to sleep with. Don't let the bastards grind you down mate
@1844Freddy, he has a beautiful face. Not in the magazine cover sense of the word of course, but in the sense that it can express all things human (as his writing does).
As he speaks here, we see his face flit from expression to expression so fast and fluid, it is impossible to register it all on the first viewing. His face runs the gamut of the human experience, even flashes of joy and kindness, despite the difficult subject discussed. I don't know of any face more expressive or wonderful.
So the question I have is, this man moved to France and became an expatriate to leave the oppression he was experience not only as a black man, but a homosexual. So was France more accepting at the time to blacks and homosexuals, were they not run by a cruel white supremacist majority like the United States?
The French played their part in racial exploitation and injustices (re: their exploits in Africa). That was more the fault of rich French elites wanting to make money of of slavery and conquering land. Yet mentality of the average French man is different. On the whole, we do not look at the colour of skin as the most important. Of course, we still have bigoted idiots, but we were never conditioned to "hate black people" or view them as none-human to the same extent as Americans.
You just have to look into the life of black American born entertainer Josephine Baker who move to France during the 1920s. She became France's most loved icon. She loved France so much that she fought in the French Resistance and was honour as a war hero. I say France is not perfect, but French mentality is more just and humane than America and many other nations. We care more about people, not skin colour. But no group is pefect still.
@uliseslima81 how da hell is that a 'stupid comment'?? its TRUE France is nothin' like america as far as the race division's & bigotry america is known for & thats true
As an "outsider" , I think Baldwin is a more human and poignant personage than MLK. King had a messianic almost formidable air about him. Baldwin, like any great artist, has the capacity to move you to identify with him even if you hail from a different "system of reality" than his.
the civil rights movement was almost 50 years ago. ive seen pictures and read stories, but this video is the most powerful reflection on it i've ever heard. i could've cried while listening to him.
i would say let us never forget, but im afraid weve already forgotten.
'. that's part of the dilemma of being an american.. you wonder what your role is in this county and what your future is.. how are you going to reconcile yourself to your situation ..and how are you going to communicate with the vast, heedless, unthinking, cruel majority.. i'm terrified at the moral apathy at the depth of the heart that is happening in my country.. people have rooted themselves for so long.. and that means they have become moral monsters.' look at us. we still acting like this.
look at what we're saying and doing to each other. we're still acting like 'moral monsters.' look at us. look at me and you individually, collectively, it doesn't matter, because i think we are looking at the wrong things. instead of looking at each other, we should be searching for one another. it seems strange, ironic, that we would chose pt. 1 to start being the very beast he's speaking of. can we reconcile ourselves when we aren't trying to change. they say there's progress. well, is there?
@dancewomyn1 if you are to dumb to get the joke.. wait are you seriously that dumb? I find it very very very funny you asked that like "Oh well how are blacks suppose to talk, what are you tryin to say" haha shut the fuck up you stupid bitch. its ppl like you that make racism continue, i said it to be funny, you question it to be a stupid bitch. Bitch.
@PhaydeRaps OK...YOU NEED TO CHILL THAT BULLSHIT OUT!! You don't know me and I don't know you, so first of all..no need to call me a bitch because I'm not your bitch!! Secondly, I asked a simple question, and YOU TRIPPED..NOT ME!! Thirdly, You never wrote anything to indicate you were joking like lol, or ha ha ..so why are you trippin over something so simple!!???
@dancewomyn1 Your the one "trippin" lol.. must be a rock or something.. fucking idiot. If I needed to type lol or haha to let idiots like you know its a joke, they (you) dont belong on the internet with the big bad world. STUPID BITCH.
Cool Chocolate..thanks...oops this will prob print as from xyzllii...my 2nd channel..my computer does this unless I go into PaPEach..I am the same person tho...:))
There are so few shows like this, where an artist, or intellectual can sit and just talk. Even the few on pbs, are very limited with time restraints...Plus most celebrities today, dont need talent or brains to become famous. Its sad.
it's like no one actually listened to one word this man just said. I don't care who he was banging...this man along with malcolm and martin called it perfectly...especially baldwin with what we see in our country right now.
who he was banging was just character assassination. this phenomenon among southern whites who get so shocked when a man wants to have a lot of sex, is just an insight into their own tedious sexless lives. To think a man's character is somehow threatened by how many times he ejaculates or with who is the most childish and salacious political criticism from Baldwin to Clinton.
Baldwin was a rare writer. I just got the American Library edtion of his essays, and he was brilliant. I do a lot of reading, and for a writer to draw me, to the point where I could not put the book down, into a 40+ year old essay on the black experience in America is amazing. A true artist.
I snuck and read "The Fire Next Time" & "Notes on a Native Son" when I was 6. We had a family bookcase and the grown folks bookcase in my parents' room. I would sneak in their room and read them whenever they weren't paying attention. I love his work. I love the honesty and courage of it, especially his discussion of the black church and some of it's hypocrisy. The sadness in his eyes hurts my heart. He had to leave America to get some measure of peace. He never seemed happy. He is missed.
@phuturephunk Its incredible my brother, our capacity for finding things to disagree and hate each other on is diabolically ingenious and shockingly overwhelming. 'Can't we all just get along?'. How about a 'If not positive shut up' policy on these forums?
Do you even think before what comes out of your mouth? and if you do I pity you even more. Its funny how you have allot of admiration for Malcom X yet you display the complete opposite of an educated black man. By the way what do you do for a living? Work at McDonald's wouldn't surprise me, lol.
First of all, how can one talk through an P.C?! "Now ask yourself that question?!" You stupid piece of shit! You make fuckin' sense! You faggot ass cracka!!! "What an MORON!!!"
All of you faggots!!! Who are defending other faggots !!! Need to all fuckin' die!!! Most of you faggots are white people!!! And any of you faggots, who are people of color!!! You need to serious check yourself!!! Because you are under the mind control of the white devils in this world!!! The true nature of a black man and black woman, is NOT homosexual!!! And the word "homophobic"!!! Is an absolute mad up word!!! Homo: meaning same; Phobic (orphobia): meaning fear; Homo + Phobia= "Same Fear".
'The true nature of the black man is NOT homosexual.`
If you become anti-Baldwin then the devil has won. Don't let anyone separate you from your brotha. Divide and conquer, ever heard of that? It's the devil's game.
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(gospel of James)
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
1awareness 1 month ago
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5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
1awareness 1 month ago
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As a child, I have always enjoyed the oracles, and even dreamed about dating a few. But when you learn the teachings of Buddhist/ Gnostic Christianity. That childhood dream was even more unrealistic. But I still dream about oracles. Even more when you communicate for positive answers from my own government.
When will our government realize that; they are only calling for yes men. (But i know i did best in my keep the vows.)
1awareness 2 months ago
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If only we had more people like James; willing to be the intermediate in the mist of darkness and conflicts within social justice system. His words open hearts, raises hope for a chance for possible solutions within in clear passionate discernment; He inspires progress vs indifference and ego centralism. "James" could bring light to any conflict.
(If their was a roster for that job. I would t love to make that list!)
shem
1awareness 2 months ago
We are such a beautiful ppl
Casinovega 2 months ago
Baldwin Hills.....
fifthyd1 2 months ago
Who in the hell could dislike this video?
mleonsmith 3 months ago
When I need moral courage; to remember to keep believing in our fellow man. "James Baldwin is there for me."
1awareness 3 months ago
This man is brilliant, even in death. In this segment he enunciates the dilemma W.E.B.DuBois wrestles with in "The Souls of Black Folks", namely "the double-consciousness" of Black folks in America; being American (or White minded) and Negro (which basically translates as one treated as an outsider in America). With the availability of the internet, why do we whine about them not teaching our young about people such as Baldwin. That's our duty. I notice Asians and Jews have their own schools.
kweju3 4 months ago
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Obama is R Enemy: debt is $14,639,000,000,000.
Obama took office Jan 09, national debt was $10,626,000,000,000.
Fed owes a whole lot more now, including to China, $4,247,000,000,000 in just 945 days. The fastest increase under any president ever.
Obama says yes, we can get control of the debt. But every time he says that he adds trillions of $-$ in infrastructure repairs R needed . With interest rates so low, according to the thinking of Obama , now is the time to borrow more!
onstageagain 5 months ago
Well to my way of thin kin' it wasn't the Black man's penis Old Massa envied ,but the Black Man's Brain.Why else would old massa make it unlawful for the slave( the Field Negro,the house negro sometimes got some learnin'lol) to learn how to read/write??Too many House Negroes like Oprah OBOMBA,the Two Brown Rice (Condi/Susan) CONcubines and Lyin Colon Powell, today not enough of the Field Negro Leaders allowed to be Heard,just the Whitewashed Jesse and Al
suzieq0452 5 months ago
I'm a 49 year old California native who just picked up a Library of Congress Baldwin collection last week at my local library, and I'm blown away by his enormous talent. Never read a word of his before...now I can't put it down. The man was fucking brilliant, he could not handle the "moral monsters" that constituted the the white racists that existed then and still do today.
spd13062 6 months ago
I just realized how racist ive been my whole life....
even though I grew up in a black neighborhood, with liberal parents, it doesn't matter. I've been so racist towards these people even when I was being friendly to them. I just realized I thought of them all as cartoon-like people, with canned responses, reactions, statements, and behaviors. I caught myself saying " He's so well-spoken." And why should that be a surprise rather than what I expected? Because he is black. Lord help me.
Wrhexen 7 months ago 13
@Wrhexen it´s subliminal racism, but can you be blamed, you definitely had it from television, only on tv you here "oh he is so well spoken" haha
behinddacurtain 7 months ago
@Wrhexen here's a canned response for you...HONKEY!!!
BillyDee45 2 months ago
thank you for this..
futuristfood 7 months ago
Severe Civil rights crimes are committed in Canada by authorities against citizens who try to use their constitutional civil right of not talking to them. This anti-democracy, authority attacks happen with lazer/tazer type guns which work through concrete walls of your home from outside or even the floor above. They rape women with these high power guns, also abuse their access to high ranking officials giving them one side of false story against citizen who questions their abuse of power.
1kash123 9 months ago
never knew much about him i think i just heard of his name. who is he.
Mandinko23 9 months ago
Awesome man... just awesome!
scarface82us 9 months ago
why arent young black people taught about men like CLR James, or James Baldwin. Malcolm x is rarely mentioned, even less is afrocentrism. I didnt learn about afrocentrism until my philosophy class in college. We know Martin Luther King, but even his true character is kept secret. More black children need to know about the black intellectuals who have come before now, who here now. Obama is not enough, do they know WEB Dubious? Zora Neale Hurston? Bayard Rustin? I think not.
UtopiaMinor666 10 months ago 61
@UtopiaMinor666 You said it. It's a shame to not hear young African American students wanting to become scientists, engineers, artists, etc. Many want to be in singing, acting, or sports.
VittoIB 9 months ago
@VittoIB i agree 100%. Thats why i smile when i see guys like Neil Degrasse Tyson or Cornel West
UtopiaMinor666 9 months ago
@UtopiaMinor666 I am a white guy who teaches at a small public college in a big city. I'm often shocked at the low level of knowledge exhibited by my Afro-American students concerning Afro-American history & its major figures. Worse, many of them seem to think it unimportant to know about the figures you've listed. I read James Baldwin's Notes of Native Son and The Autobiography of Malcolm X when I was 17, not because some teacher told me to do so, but out of curiousity & interest.
bapyou 8 months ago
@bapyou i know what you mean. I recently re-read Bill Cosby's "pound Cake" speech, and though it was rather scathing, he said what was true. Black americans, and i see it in my own family, have become complacent (not all of us) within our "re-education." We have our own clothing, speech, and perspective, but i for one do not fall within those norms. I love science and history and poetry, but saddly i find less blacks who do. Im 22, still in college, and perhaps that is a reason? I wont lose hope
UtopiaMinor666 8 months ago
@UtopiaMinor666 "I love science and history and poetry, but saddly i find less blacks who do."
My experience has brought me into contact with black folks who are Phds in physics or doctors and many other type of professional. Be who you are. The idea that black folks are only good for sports or entertainment is simply asinine. Science? History? Poetry? I'm there. You should be too. As Jimi Hendrix said, "I'm the one who's got to die when it's time for me to die."
bapyou 8 months ago
@bapyou i can only judge from my peers, and through my limited experience, but i did not mean those assertions as any sort of oversimplification or generalization, only through experience. Im aware there are many blacks who share my interests, like Neil DeGrasse Tyson or Cornell West. By the way, that Hendrix quote is one of my favorites, and its proceeds one of my favorite hendrix tracks. Right on!
UtopiaMinor666 8 months ago
@bapyou
Thank you so much for expressing your experience and social observation.
MulattoSingsTheBlues 8 months ago
sorry mate the people think these men were dysfunctional . they are normal black who talks about they white god
macbern7010 6 months ago
@UtopiaMinor666 what about pan africanist from out side america like J Kwame Nkrumah, Marcus Garvey and so on.
Colenelnelson 6 months ago
@UtopiaMinor666 . I completely agree. Its up to us to pass on this knowledge to our progeny. The idea that the public school system can provide a proper education is ludicrous; and especially in the case of black Americans its beyond ludicrous. The only black identity taught in Public School is of the slave and the oppressed minority. Black children receive NO empowering education especially in the case of the true black heros of America and pre and post colonial Africa.
JimBowie1133 5 months ago
@UtopiaMinor666 You forgot A. Phillip Randolph. He helped to desegregate the military and organized mass marches, and solidified a union for people. Also, lesser known groups like Deacons for Defense. Man, there's a whole history of greatness that people don't know. Hell i'm still learning. I too didn't learn this stuff till college. Imagine if this information was infused into the education of children at an early age.
blacnight1 5 months ago
@UtopiaMinor666 "More Black children need to know..." Do Y-O-U tell them. Each one teach one.
kweju3 4 months ago
@UtopiaMinor666 The community college that I am currently attending has an African American History course...? Apparently there's AFRICAN American history, and then there's American, or Revisionist, history. One is watered down, the other turns a blind eye. If white children were taught the unedited version, we would find out that our ancestors were raping, lying, genocidal filth. If black youth were taught the truth, they may become empowered personally and culturally. They can't have that
ParkerandLongbaugh 4 months ago
@UtopiaMinor666 TOP 10 most ignorant comments ever..be honest how many black people or children do you encounter on a daily basis?..I bet the answer is not too many and I can also bet that your simple mindedness is solely based off of what you have seen on TV or the 1 or 2 black people you have come across in life..black people, similar to whichever culture u belong 2, proudly learn their history at a very early age.. btw do the names Michael Dyson and Cornel West ring a bell?..DONT GENERALIZE!!
VPDREAM 4 months ago
@VPDREAM well as a black person myself I have, and do continue to run into a large amount of black people on a daily basis, it appears Im not the one generalizing. In fact, my assertions are proven more factual than yours have of me. Now what i have seen of black men and women on television--for example sitcoms--are embraced by black people by large marginsh, not because they appeal to our intellectual and forgotten history, but because they are superficial, but also relatable
UtopiaMinor666 4 months ago
@VPDREAM an it is evident to me that you assumed me to be just another frivolous white person who wants to embrace this historical injustice. These injustices strike me as they do any other person who takes intrest, but you know what ive said is true and the mentioning of two black people (dyson and west) mean very little. I probability--and thru time--some future person would use those men as examples as to how little young blacks know. im aware of those. some of us know, but not enough.
UtopiaMinor666 4 months ago
@UtopiaMinor666 -- I couldnt have said it better. its alot more difficult in an advance society
like today because MONEY n Fame are a primary factor. Also image as opposed to knowledge
is glorified in this generation. HIP HOP & Entertainment flood television, radio, and magazines
as a whole. People stuck together back then when they didnt have much, amongst minorities
now PRIDE, Ignorance, and hatred run rampid. --- LIFE
Slayton701 3 months ago
@UtopiaMinor666 I teach Malcolm X in my undergraduate English courses and students make the same point: "Why haven't we learned of him yet?" Silly America--that's why.
ClarenceCenter 3 months ago
@UtopiaMinor666 i agree. the best way to change this is to become a teacher yourself and to teach this. i did. i teach history and georgraphy, always keeping the African, Native, Latino, and Asian, and even poor white perspectives in the forefront
reptilianism420 2 months ago
@UtopiaMinor666 I agree with you but I don't think just more black people need to learn about these people, North America and the World needs to learn about these people...
I think the main problem is that by learning about these people we also learn the truth behind government oppression and the corruption our incompetent leaders wallow in ... that is why the great human beings are hidden from the masses...
OppressedAnarchist 2 months ago
@UtopiaMinor666 Young blacks are interested in Lil' Wayne, Jay-Z, Beyonce, etc., and various sports figures. They're also interested in flash mobs in which they can run wild and steal other people's property. They certainly aren't interested in James Baldwin or Malcolm X.
Elmore3141 1 month ago
@UtopiaMinor666 It's also a sad thing that white young people are not being exposed to these critical thinkers and historical figures or to the important so-called white progressive and revolutionary thinkers that would also open their minds. Blood thirsty capitalism and the concentration of media ownership are dominant forces that we must work around, mitigate, and ultimately downstroy, as Marley puts it. Baldwin is an interesting and complex man. Thanx 4 posting.
drjimiboy69 3 weeks ago
Thanks for posting this!
SugarShandy 11 months ago
The State of Black America
konbitkreyol 1 year ago
Is this not the mirror, if not the elephant ever present in the room...is for white folk to strip themselves of this innate , not sense (insane sense of supremacy), it is behind every war, every nation being of third world status,whatever that means, where there is poverty in the world look who's on top....he is as brutally honest as Chris Hitchins,
88278888 1 year ago
"the problem no is..how are you going to save yourselves?"
wow.
helgamonster 1 year ago 3
@helgamonster Damn?! So his last statement fucked you up with just it's power of truth too, huh?
mooncooninc83 1 year ago
Did Lenny Bruce model his voice on this guy?
dojufitz 1 year ago
This fool's a fake-ass nigga. Don't you know he's a faggotass nigga. Diss'n the Nation, fool ass. The MH Elijah Muhammad spoke the truth, the krakkka isa devil.
hotep my niggaz.
BillyFeynman 1 year ago
Certain elements still hold true to this day. Wonder what he would think of Harlem today?
flamairzah 1 year ago
Yes he was an intellectual, a civil right activist, and a good writer-- but why did he have to choose to be gay? You cant claim intellectuallism when you choose abomination. The bible says it.
Basra2020 1 year ago
@Basra2020 Chose to be gay? You serious? Sexual orientation is decided in the fetus stage of development... no choice... I guess he chose to be black as well right? In a country and time when being either could be a death sentence... the only abomination is a fool who takes 2,000 year old fables in place of free thought...
Jester2415 1 year ago
@Jester2415 Jester it is not stated in the bible that being black is an abomination. One is born black or white, but one is not born gay. Homosexuality is a purely human choice, it is a sin according to the bibble. As far as homosexuality being not a choice, and biological, well---maybe so. But when a man stops being a man, and that is not marrying a woman and having a family--that man made a choice of a life of sin. Baldwin's all good qualities are over-shadowed by his perverse lifestyle.
Basra2020 1 year ago
@Basra2020 Free will is an illusion. There is no choice in anything, our genes decide who we are and how we think. If you were born in India you'd be Buddhist or Muslim, location is the number one determiner of creed. Morality is relative, what you believe is wrong is not universal truth, other cultures revere and tolerate what you refer to as sin. Do you have empirical evidence to support any of your claims? Facts, studies, numbers? Talking snakes, brush fires, and donkeys won't cut it...
Jester2415 1 year ago
@Basra2020 the bibble is a man's book who cares what it says
allenamerica 1 year ago
@Jester2415
Questions: Are you stating facts? Sexual Orientation decided in the womb? Really? I mean I understand your points, your positioning. But empiricism is itself a kind of ideology just as deadly as religious fundamentalism.
Chico313 1 year ago
@Chico313 The leading theory has to do a lot with hormone levels in a woman's body while she is pregnant, statistically the chances go up that the boy she is carrying will be gay after each male child she has previously given birth too, why? Her hormone levels have changed, it's basically a defense mechanism to keep the baby(foreign body) from being rejected by the mother before term... it's an evolutionary adaptation... I don't support any "ism" only rational thought, meaning by the numbers...
Jester2415 1 year ago
@Jester2415: I ask first: what are the assumptions allowing you make such a statement? Do you claim to be objective? No free will, isn't that a metaphysical claim? How can you make such a sweeping statement...I pick up this cup because my genes decided it; i type this words because my genes decided it?
Chico313 11 months ago
@Chico313 1. Science 2. I'm a Nihilist, I don't believe people SHOULD think or act a certain way, so yes I have nothing to gain or profit from you agreeing with me 3. It's an evolutionary claim 4. Simple because the numbers never lie, only people. 5. Your genes dictate how your brain was formed, structured, your thought process: what you think about, how and why you think about it, and the amount of time you spend thinking about it. 6. Yes, or more specifically your brain
Jester2415 11 months ago
@Jester2415: ( I am speaking specifically to point 6) Let me see if I have a handle on the implications of this statement. I am my brain, nothing else. Because I am nothing but these neurons and synapses, I pick up this cup and it is not "I" that decides to move my hand to pick up the cup but my brain, which is all that I am (?). Therefore picking up the cup is not an empty intention I've initiated but mechanisms of the brain at work, for my brain is structured to want to pick up an empty cup?
Chico313 11 months ago
@Chico313 In short yes... we are biological machines, programed by our DNA and manipulated by our sensory organs...
"it is not "I" that decides to move my hand" - What is this "I" you are referring to? Your conscientiousness? You can't separate your mind from your brain, one begets the other.
Jester2415 11 months ago
@Jester2415 Christ me, who are you then? An "I" is an aggregation of attitudes, beliefs and memories sustained over a finite span of time. Are you not a proponent of rational thought? Have you ever reflected on your memories and past feelings, and, naturally, redirected these phenomenon back to the present being? This self-examination is the delicate construction of a self, an I, identity. I don't know what you refer to by conscientiousness, do you mean awareness?
Chico313 11 months ago
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@Chico313 I am animal no more no less. "An "I" is an aggregation of attitudes, beliefs and memories sustained over a finite span of time." - really? my head hurts, you just made that up... Redirected memories and past feelings to a present being? Huh? You mean like when a computer uses a search engine?
Jester2415 11 months ago
@Jester2415: Yes that right I did just make it up. You asked what an was and I gave you a rational answer...does your head hurt because you don't understand? I know that is not the case with you though, your much too sharp for that. Nothing in that proposition(An "I" is...") is illogical (if so please explain). My friend, if you think the act of reflecting on memories is essentially the same as a computer compiling data, then I feel the discourse we have presently built must end.
Chico313 11 months ago
@Chico313 You made up a definition of something that you have no evidence/data exists... The "i" you are referring to exists only cuz you want it too... sounds like faith to me...
Jester2415 11 months ago
@Jester2415: Okay. Okay. Its funny because I agree with you in some sense, specifically thoughts influenced by Sartre's work. And it is a form of faith--a faith you experience, the evidence in living. But as I said before I am sorry for you, and myself: I failed to effectively communicate with you, and so I have failed to invoke my own humanity to the degree that I can reach across the boundaries of dogma and ideology.
Chico313 11 months ago
@Jester2415: Where are the numbers and facts that disregard free will? You still haven't answered my question. I move across the country because of what ? My brain firing and operating to produce the option and choice, the situation of the leaving, and this thus proves that I have no free will...? Is that not tenuous logic, brittle rational thought? To point 5: is their a philosophy gene then? A gene for reflection?
Chico313 11 months ago
@Chico313 Don't have the space or time to educate you... wish I did. Animals seek dominance, control, the implications of no free will scares most people because it means a lack of control... the social system falls apart... I can't break denial that strong...
"is their a philosophy gene then? A gene for reflection?" there just might be one or two...
Jester2415 11 months ago
@Jester2415: I appreciate your sarcasm, I really do. But I have responded to your comments because I felt you were educated on the topic, able to respond intelligently and honestly.
Denial? I have no problem being an animal. We are rational animals. Fine. I only claim freedom as a rational animal, unlike a Lion, for example, that screws when it has the urge to with out reserve, I can negate this my urge to engage in fornication. What is this? Can you please address my points?
Chico313 11 months ago
@Chico313 The average man thinks about sex every 17 seconds, not because he wants too but because of hormones... I'd say we humans do a lot more screwing than any lion, and unlike them we aren't seasonal maters, so we fornicate all year round despite being "rational animals" without much reservation giving the current population numbers, the porn industry is a multi-billion dollar industry so it's save to say there is a lot self fornication going on too
PS I appreciate my sarcasm too
Jester2415 11 months ago
@Jester2415 @Jester2415: Did I say that people don't fuck proper? And I am willing to wager that humans do not screw more than a lion. How much are you willing to bet? A Lion mating bout can last for a couple of days and they copulate twenty to forty times. Are you hitting the sheets like that? I doubt it. Oh, and Lions do not mate at any specific time in the year by the way.
Chico313 11 months ago
@Chico313 I'll take that bet and all cats go through periods of heat look it up, females go into heat often right after cubs ween, its why male lions will kill rival cubs in the spring... to force their heat cycle.
Jester2415 11 months ago
@Jester2415: To point 1, 2, and 4: How can people not lie? So you speak from space of objectivity, you claim to candidly grapple with the numbers, while others simply manipulate the raw facts. No, bruh. Everyone has prejudices, preconceived notions, the influence of culture upon the activity of science is a constant distortion. Then, you have no culture? No particular experiences that dispose you to your thinking, this Nihilism, this pure scientific "objectivity" you grasp?
Chico313 11 months ago
@Chico313 "Everyone has prejudices, preconceived notions, the influence of culture upon the activity of science is a constant distortion." - So you're saying we have no free will in this matter, no choice in objectivity? Can't argue with that. Though I guess our justice system falls apart then too if it's impossible to be objective... looks like no jury duty for you
Jester2415 11 months ago
@Jester2415 I find this response puerile. I am speaking very specifically to science as a practice, and you have conflated my claim with the function of the judicial system. This is another discussion completely, but of course preconceived notions play into our judicial system, part of the reason black and brown people have such an astronomical high conviction rate (just another nigger or speck but if it was a white boy from the suburbs he gets off easy...[forgive the simplification of things])
Chico313 11 months ago
@Chico313 you said there can be no objectivity in science... that is an absolute statement... but you retracted it so I'll let it slide... but you seem to harbor a world view that contradicts a choice in objectivity... if humans are such rational animals why do they impose negative emotional beliefs on others, there is no scientific data to support race, we humans are almost genetically the same?
Jester2415 11 months ago
@Jester2415 I do believe I am speaking to the application of raw facts, which is what you are doing, interpreting numbers and formulating a very comprehensive world view. Yep, numbers are objective, but, in our case, you aren't objective at all, you have a startling list of assumptions and theoretical leaps of faith to under-gird your statements about determinism and the negation of free will. Forgive me if I was back sliding for I do believe at some level science is objective.
Chico313 11 months ago
@Chico313 You haven't used a single raw fact yet my friend... the one clinging to their faith is you... but I don't blame you, denial is the road most often traveled...
Jester2415 11 months ago
@Jester2415: Okay. I see things are tapering off into a wretched futility. I guess I should be left to my little corner, skulking in my "denial."
Also forgive my spelling errors >_< in the Nietzsche post, I rushed that one out.
Chico313 11 months ago
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Chico313 11 months ago
@Jester2415: I digress. I am asserting that science does not occur in a vacuum. So science is biased in some sense, though it does rightly have a claim to objectivity, some forms of science, specifically, and how the results are interpreted and applied to human beings is problematic. And no we don't choose our culture, I never said I didn't believe in contingency.
Chico313 11 months ago
@Chico313 We also don't choose our place of birth, parents, race, gender, sexual orientation, body type, genes, religion(number one factor in deciding what creed someone will be is the culture they are born into)... not much we have control over huh, but we still have cups...
Jester2415 11 months ago
@Jester2415:Yet you are placed in a situation where you can decide, let this rational thinking you are such a proponent of, change things. All of what you listed I gladly accept, but continuing to practice a religion, choosing to be gay, overcoming the ignorances of your parents, loving your body--these points exceeds their determined origination. Yes, we have cups and freedom and fucking, on occasion. Were you Christian? If so, I take you have discarded this old ideology? Freely, eh?
Chico313 11 months ago
@Chico313 "choosing to be gay"... now we get to the root of the conflict... your intolerance
Jester2415 11 months ago
@Jester2415: Ha! This gave me a laugh, though it is so far from the truth I have to smile.
Chico313 11 months ago
@Chico313 once again your truth is artificial... no numerical data...
Jester2415 11 months ago
@Jester2415 In conclusion: It seems you do have ideology, even if you disavow any such talk of ideology. Nihilism: hopelessness, no belief; to embrace nothing (?). I think, which is to say I believe, that everyone has beliefs, do you not believe that there is nothing to believe in, nothing to hope for? Or do you believe that your thinking is Truth, and acquaintance with Reality?
Chico313 11 months ago
@Chico313 Belief requires a leap in faith by definition, not to be confused with think, assume, guess, and theorize... which require some facts or data to be considered rational... belief requires none... Your definition of Nihilism is false and reeks of a lack of understanding... I support rational thought, how is that hopeless? I hold no monopoly on truth, I am just an animal after all, but I question everything in a pursuit for a clearer understanding of our reality.
Jester2415 11 months ago
@Jester2415 I have no problem admitting my error. Please educate me and provide a definition of nihilism, exactness would be nice. Interesting you claim to be in pursuit of a clearer understanding of reality. If, as you asserted in a comment above, that the world cannot function without free will, then how can determinism elucidate anything about a world that is completely invested in free will--doesn't this constitute a reality separate from your reality of will-less, string puppets?
Chico313 11 months ago
@Chico313 Nihilism is what you get when you stripe away all human artificial constructions used to imposed meaning, purpose, and beliefs on the world, the irrational thought man has constructed his world around, (whether that be supernatural deities or a class system) it is a form of anti-denial and rational understanding
There is no end game in evolution.. only more change... we all have strings might as well dance along...
Jester2415 11 months ago
@Jester2415:Shall we turn to Nietzsche (?) : “Every belief, every considering something-true is necessarily false because there is simply no true world." Don't you hold your "facts," not to mention there application, as true? How can you be a nihilist if you have not yet decimated these vestiges of meaning, value, truth...for don't you claim these things in your rational understanding? Does not Nietzsche subvert the ideology of science?
Chico313 11 months ago
@Chico313 Nietzsche did not invent Nihilism only popularized his version of it, and he doesn't hold a monopoly on it's definition... Mine is a far more modern... your twisting the definition of "truth". I reject man made notions of truth, the truth I accept is what makes the universe function, laws in physics...
Jester2415 11 months ago
@Jester2415: Nietzsche did not popularize nihilism, my friend. Nihilism was popularized during the existentialist movement in French in 40s and 50s by Satre, Camu, De Beauvoir, and etc. Or are you referring to the postmodern brand of nihilism, Lyotard and Braudrillard for example. But I do believe the first record instant of nihilism, in philosophical sense, began with Max Stirner. You can look it up, if you please. Again provide a definition that is clear, perhaps a genealogy of your usage
Chico313 11 months ago
@Chico313 What are you talking about, Nietzsche inspired an entire generational movement and way of thought... the Nazi movement took heavily from him for an example... My definition was clear as day... not my fault you can't comprehend it...
Jester2415 11 months ago
@Jester2415 Okay, I admit I can't comprehend it. Have you read Nietzsche? Do you know what text he began to speak of nihilism? I haven't read his texts, accept for a bit of Gay Wisdom...please freely direct me.
Chico313 11 months ago
@Basra2020 The bible is full of a lot of things and most thinking people, intelligent people and intellectuals don't believe most of it. He did not choose to be gay any more than I chose to be straight, like me he was born that way and embraced it. He is a wonderful being and I love him very much for what he did and for having the courage to do it. I feel sorry for those that wrap their intolerance in a religious cloak.
vs1142 1 year ago
what an incredible man... he had to move to France to have some peace..
he gave up on America.... 60 years later.. has anything really changed?
catjohnson007 1 year ago 26
Thank you so much for your words. Nothing has progressed for the better, nor changed. The evolutionary state of being for African Americans will be a great hardship. Many do not wish excel or to improve outside of materialism and superficial ways. The Intellect of the "Black" community and nation is underground, it struggles to maintain support.
I support anyone who seeks a better solution, even if it means to leave your people behind as a way to uplift them, regarding the future.
MulattoSingsTheBlues 8 months ago
@catjohnson007 He didn't give up on it entirely. He's said he moved to write outside the context of an "American negro"... and write as a "foreigner".
donnyforte2 7 months ago
@catjohnson007 Yes quite a lot, but I know what you mean and racism can never be gone. Not until the human race is extinct.
barretsbumhole 5 months ago
@catjohnson007 it's gotten worse.
robinsl27 5 months ago
what an incredible man... he had to move to France to have some peace..
he gave up on America.... 60 years later.. has anything really chnaged?
catjohnson007 1 year ago
This man was an amazing intellectual.
Thedarksecret1 1 year ago
speaking as a gay African American male who often feels suicidal even in this era, god almighty what this man had to go through being raised in poverty as a gay African American male and live through socially acceptable anti-black mistreatment era that only gradually ended in the 1970s
Tonetare 1 year ago 2
@Tonetare Draw strength from his example Tone. Also I'd recommend reading the Story of a Mr Bayard Rustin. He was the Godfather of the Civil Rights movement. The man all the great Civil Rights leaders turned to for strategic advice and organisation, yet he was kept in the background because of his sexuality. A brilliant man marginalised by both white AND black society for nothing other than his nature. More than one person should have to take. He's a new hero of mine. Take care mate
LeBigMacDaddy 1 year ago
@LeBigMacDaddy @LeBigMacDaddy I was very awestruck when I first heard of James Baldwin a month or so ago because you just never hear about gay black men back in those times because I guess they were all thrusts into the background because of their sexuality. It's heartbreaking how one can be demonized by society because of they're very nature. I do thank you greatly for this recommendation about Mr Bayard Rustin. I can use all the inspiration and leadership by example I can.
Tonetare 1 year ago
@Tonetare No probs Tonetare, ever since I heard of Mr Rustin's story I've been telling anyone who'll listen. James Baldwin is of the same mould, a man of remarkable dignity in the face of so much oppression. I'm not a gay man myself but I have a gay friend I hang out with who's the sweetest, nicest, funniest guy I know and I see the shit he has to put up with and it sickens me that people can judge a man for which gender he chooses to sleep with. Don't let the bastards grind you down mate
LeBigMacDaddy 1 year ago
People should read some of his books. He was a brilliant man.
itsme30518 1 year ago
My favorite American man of letters.
kern0099 1 year ago
He has a gay face
1844Freddy 1 year ago
@1844Freddy, he has a beautiful face. Not in the magazine cover sense of the word of course, but in the sense that it can express all things human (as his writing does).
As he speaks here, we see his face flit from expression to expression so fast and fluid, it is impossible to register it all on the first viewing. His face runs the gamut of the human experience, even flashes of joy and kindness, despite the difficult subject discussed. I don't know of any face more expressive or wonderful.
EyeLean5280 1 year ago
That his words are still so relevant is disturbing, but also somehow reassuring.
cukistcrispeque 1 year ago
So the question I have is, this man moved to France and became an expatriate to leave the oppression he was experience not only as a black man, but a homosexual. So was France more accepting at the time to blacks and homosexuals, were they not run by a cruel white supremacist majority like the United States?
jtkalehua 1 year ago
@jtkalehua
The French played their part in racial exploitation and injustices (re: their exploits in Africa). That was more the fault of rich French elites wanting to make money of of slavery and conquering land. Yet mentality of the average French man is different. On the whole, we do not look at the colour of skin as the most important. Of course, we still have bigoted idiots, but we were never conditioned to "hate black people" or view them as none-human to the same extent as Americans.
MustNotRead 1 year ago
@MustNotRead
You just have to look into the life of black American born entertainer Josephine Baker who move to France during the 1920s. She became France's most loved icon. She loved France so much that she fought in the French Resistance and was honour as a war hero. I say France is not perfect, but French mentality is more just and humane than America and many other nations. We care more about people, not skin colour. But no group is pefect still.
MustNotRead 1 year ago
@jtkalehua i doubt france is ANYTHING like america in ANY way shape or form
RottenPeachState706 1 year ago
@RottenPeachState706 that's just such a stupid comment.
uliseslima81 1 year ago
@uliseslima81 how da hell is that a 'stupid comment'?? its TRUE France is nothin' like america as far as the race division's & bigotry america is known for & thats true
RottenPeachState706 1 year ago
As an "outsider" , I think Baldwin is a more human and poignant personage than MLK. King had a messianic almost formidable air about him. Baldwin, like any great artist, has the capacity to move you to identify with him even if you hail from a different "system of reality" than his.
WhenLilacsLast 1 year ago
the civil rights movement was almost 50 years ago. ive seen pictures and read stories, but this video is the most powerful reflection on it i've ever heard. i could've cried while listening to him.
i would say let us never forget, but im afraid weve already forgotten.
alx90x 1 year ago
thanx muchly for the upload, antihostile!! good look. RaiderFunk, you know you're righteous on that last comment. be well
loximoxy 1 year ago
'. that's part of the dilemma of being an american.. you wonder what your role is in this county and what your future is.. how are you going to reconcile yourself to your situation ..and how are you going to communicate with the vast, heedless, unthinking, cruel majority.. i'm terrified at the moral apathy at the depth of the heart that is happening in my country.. people have rooted themselves for so long.. and that means they have become moral monsters.' look at us. we still acting like this.
loximoxy 1 year ago
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rebelinfant 1 year ago
look at what we're saying and doing to each other. we're still acting like 'moral monsters.' look at us. look at me and you individually, collectively, it doesn't matter, because i think we are looking at the wrong things. instead of looking at each other, we should be searching for one another. it seems strange, ironic, that we would chose pt. 1 to start being the very beast he's speaking of. can we reconcile ourselves when we aren't trying to change. they say there's progress. well, is there?
loximoxy 1 year ago
This man is so sobering...puts a magnifying glass on everything, gotta love it.
sundiatasoulbefree 1 year ago 2
Who is the interviewer?
LuLusQueen 1 year ago
this isnt how black ppl are spose to talk!!
PhaydeRaps 1 year ago
@PhaydeRaps And just how are black people supposed to talk???
dancewomyn1 1 year ago
@dancewomyn1 if you are to dumb to get the joke.. wait are you seriously that dumb? I find it very very very funny you asked that like "Oh well how are blacks suppose to talk, what are you tryin to say" haha shut the fuck up you stupid bitch. its ppl like you that make racism continue, i said it to be funny, you question it to be a stupid bitch. Bitch.
PhaydeRaps 1 year ago
@PhaydeRaps OK...YOU NEED TO CHILL THAT BULLSHIT OUT!! You don't know me and I don't know you, so first of all..no need to call me a bitch because I'm not your bitch!! Secondly, I asked a simple question, and YOU TRIPPED..NOT ME!! Thirdly, You never wrote anything to indicate you were joking like lol, or ha ha ..so why are you trippin over something so simple!!???
dancewomyn1 1 year ago
@dancewomyn1 Your the one "trippin" lol.. must be a rock or something.. fucking idiot. If I needed to type lol or haha to let idiots like you know its a joke, they (you) dont belong on the internet with the big bad world. STUPID BITCH.
PhaydeRaps 1 year ago
@PhaydeRaps I know right, but you talk just like how assholes talk. Stupid bitch.
FDLance 1 year ago
He has a powerful mind.
dscottn101 2 years ago 4
hes so sentimental
you can just see he's been through so much
smahrdt10 2 years ago
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his eyeballs bother me.
ktbaby077 2 years ago
JUST SUCH A DARLING MAN was James Baldwin....not to mention articulate and clear thinking.
Poemsapennyeach 2 years ago 2
@Poemsapennyeach I totally agree! He displays his amazing ability as a writer even during a conversation.
Chocolatechick20 1 year ago
Cool Chocolate..thanks...oops this will prob print as from xyzllii...my 2nd channel..my computer does this unless I go into PaPEach..I am the same person tho...:))
xyzllii 1 year ago
James Baldwin interviewed by Kenneth Clark. My God, it doesn't get too much better than this: our brother James Baldwin!
JazzMaestra 2 years ago 2
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That guy looks like Beetlejuice!
bigpoopie69 2 years ago
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when was this interview?
DoTaDAwg 2 years ago
Intelligence,intellect,and eloquence
ASBANTICS 2 years ago 2
I love James baldwin's eloquence. He was so refined such an intellectual.
kaykonigin 2 years ago 4
There are so few shows like this, where an artist, or intellectual can sit and just talk. Even the few on pbs, are very limited with time restraints...Plus most celebrities today, dont need talent or brains to become famous. Its sad.
denmark555 2 years ago 4
it's like no one actually listened to one word this man just said. I don't care who he was banging...this man along with malcolm and martin called it perfectly...especially baldwin with what we see in our country right now.
RaiderFunk 2 years ago 25
who he was banging was just character assassination. this phenomenon among southern whites who get so shocked when a man wants to have a lot of sex, is just an insight into their own tedious sexless lives. To think a man's character is somehow threatened by how many times he ejaculates or with who is the most childish and salacious political criticism from Baldwin to Clinton.
Smokey1424 2 years ago 13
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@RaiderFunk man this is one ugly negro. he looks like a toad. haha
FuckUtube2008 1 year ago
@FuckUtube2008 You're an idiot.
FDLance 1 year ago
Baldwin was a rare writer. I just got the American Library edtion of his essays, and he was brilliant. I do a lot of reading, and for a writer to draw me, to the point where I could not put the book down, into a 40+ year old essay on the black experience in America is amazing. A true artist.
Gary922 2 years ago 2
I snuck and read "The Fire Next Time" & "Notes on a Native Son" when I was 6. We had a family bookcase and the grown folks bookcase in my parents' room. I would sneak in their room and read them whenever they weren't paying attention. I love his work. I love the honesty and courage of it, especially his discussion of the black church and some of it's hypocrisy. The sadness in his eyes hurts my heart. He had to leave America to get some measure of peace. He never seemed happy. He is missed.
laffytaffygreen 2 years ago 2
a great writer. I feel privileged to read his work.
ImDamagedBadAtBest 2 years ago 4
I can't believe the type of hate being spewed in these comments.
I mean really now, whats wrong with all of you?
phuturephunk 2 years ago
@phuturephunk Its incredible my brother, our capacity for finding things to disagree and hate each other on is diabolically ingenious and shockingly overwhelming. 'Can't we all just get along?'. How about a 'If not positive shut up' policy on these forums?
Kobe29261 10 months ago
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CoolDude8675309 2 years ago
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moviechick007 2 years ago
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Baldwin was an faggot!!! He's not nothing great!!!
777jeru 2 years ago
Idiot.
TeetoPlastic 2 years ago
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FAGGOT ASS BITCH MUTHAFUCKA!!!
777jeru 2 years ago
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Sorry I dont fuk guys, but I', sure your dad would fuk you. In the meantime I'll screw your mom with my video camera and my chainsaw, lol.
sktbd5001 2 years ago
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Yes you do fag with guys MORON!!! You stupid piece of dog shit!!! FAGGOT!!!
777jeru 2 years ago
Do you even think before what comes out of your mouth? and if you do I pity you even more. Its funny how you have allot of admiration for Malcom X yet you display the complete opposite of an educated black man. By the way what do you do for a living? Work at McDonald's wouldn't surprise me, lol.
sktbd5001 2 years ago
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First of all, how can one talk through an P.C?! "Now ask yourself that question?!" You stupid piece of shit! You make fuckin' sense! You faggot ass cracka!!! "What an MORON!!!"
777jeru 2 years ago
C'est avec l'honor et plaisir que j'écoute à cet entrevue. Je vous remercie.
It is an enormous honor and pleasure to listen to this interview.
tomcasteel19 2 years ago
It's a small detail, but notice how little either man says "uh" or "um" during 7:00+ minutes of conversation. The mark of a lovely speaker!
SteerforthBinoculars 2 years ago
legend
yourmajezty 2 years ago 2
Baldwin is a legend!!!!
pakslaag 2 years ago 3
I sometimes think Baldwin spoke even better than he wrote, and I'm pleased to see this clip.
Pantanographer 2 years ago
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All of you faggots!!! Who are defending other faggots !!! Need to all fuckin' die!!! Most of you faggots are white people!!! And any of you faggots, who are people of color!!! You need to serious check yourself!!! Because you are under the mind control of the white devils in this world!!! The true nature of a black man and black woman, is NOT homosexual!!! And the word "homophobic"!!! Is an absolute mad up word!!! Homo: meaning same; Phobic (orphobia): meaning fear; Homo + Phobia= "Same Fear".
777jeru 2 years ago
'The true nature of the black man is NOT homosexual.`
If you become anti-Baldwin then the devil has won. Don't let anyone separate you from your brotha. Divide and conquer, ever heard of that? It's the devil's game.
TheBeyonder9 2 years ago