Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own

A powerful book with many lessons around the life and journey of James Baldwin. Moreover, it is a story about an author who initially resisted learning and reading the works of "Jimmy".Eddie S Glaude, Jr. is masterful in his expression and drawing in the reader only to leave them quite confounded to the circumstances of their own reality. He explains and expounds on this all throughout his book "repeating himself...repeating himself...repeating himself" like the drumbeat of a death march casting a foreshadowing of things to come if one does not heed the apparent warnings and signs of the times. The challenge and call to action are clear. We must change and for real THIS time!This book challenged me in ways I had not anticipated. Again, as I learn more about the world, history, people, places, and things the more I realize how much I really do not know, let alone fully comprehend. It gives me pause. Pause when I see others not slow down long enough to understand what they are really truly saying and how their 'intent' is ultimately doomed to disenfranchise their 'impact.' Pause to question myself and ask "why am I questioning them" and to repeat the introspection of "who am I." Pause to understand Jimmy and what he was really trying to tell 'the America' he loved so much. He was a patriot in the truest sense though some may feel him a traitor.Jimmy, like Glaude, like me, was almost ready to give up on America, especially White America. I struggle still.Jimmy had turned to White folks time and time again to help with the racial unrest in America but was often betrayed. White folks hurt Jimmy not realizing that in him was perhaps one of their greatest allies. Black folks betrayed Jimmy as well thinking of him as some type of sellout, a betrayal to blackness, and the cause. What few understood until much later is that Jimmy was definitely for America. A new American that would be fluid in accepting all and living up to the ideals penned by the Founding Fathers though their hearts were far from the narrative of that masterful work and their eyes dim to what our country would become.When White people killed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. it crushed and changed Jimmy. Others who were alive when it happened were changed too. For me, the change took place this week when Breonna Taylor and her family found no justice, no peace! I was incensed. No justice, no peace took on a whole new meaning for me. The lack of peace in the nation is more so found in the depths of my very soul. Rayshard... Ahmaud... Daniel... George... Breonna... These names are more than unsettling and the nation has yet to hold up the mirror to itself and stand accountable, responsible, and repent. America is in rage and the people indeed imagine vain things (Psalm 2:1). My head hangs low and I repeat, "here we are now...here we are now...here we are now." I look up from whence cometh my help! (Psalm 121:1-2)Jimmy. I would have never thought to call him that. Jimmy. I guess those that knew him best would engage him on such an informal platform. Jimmy. I feel as though I know him more and better than I thought possible though he is no longer with us.One final thought is that when I personally see the face of Jimmy I see the face of my late Uncle Ducky. Perhaps as a kid, I couldn't say "Douglas" or "Dougy" so my childish naive mind fashion the words "Ducky." I imagine I was perhaps more familiar with ducks when I was little. Either way, the name is forever etched in my mind as Uncle Ducky. Jimmy and Uncle Ducky had the same look, the same demeanor, and the same cool way of speaking. They had the same small thin frame though I believe Uncle Ducky was much taller than Jimmy. Uncle Ducky had one of the smoothest ways of speaking and engaging in conversation. Sometimes his words slurred together due to a night of heavy drinking or smoking that stuff which is legal in some states today, but the point is it still made sense or, at least, sense to me. I miss him!Jimmy, and Ducky, will be missed. The beauty in pursuing the works of James Baldwin is that perhaps somewhere along my journey I will learn about a man who penned his thoughts, condemnation, rebuke, love, and admiration for a country he deeply desired to make itself anew. To make itself anew for ALL people. To make itself anew because it CAN! To make itself anew because it can no longer afford NOT to.Enjoy!

James Baldwin was akin to the biblical prophet…’a voice crying in the wilderness’. He knew from whence he came. He was a loving man living the unloved life of being queer and black. His words reflect the pain and hope of the individual and the collective. He offers them freely but they are not for the faint of heart. His words are so poignant for such a time as this. And Eddie Claude, Jr. does a masterful job of complimenting Baldwin’s ‘after’ life with a voice of the ‘now’….pleading with Americans to finally choose a better way…on our way to the New Jerusalem. Great book!

I read this book between Kindle & Audible. I couldn’t put it down. A richness of history that offers a deeper understanding of where we find ourselves at this moment in time. I rarely write reviews of books read. There few books I consume from beginning to end these days. It commanded my attention from the beginning.Professor Glaude, I will return to this book again and again as I grapple with making sense of our nation today. Our democracy is at risk and if it’s to rebound as a construct that serves us all as a real Republic it will take our active and participative witness to share our truths in the space of a new reality. A reality that’s anchored in an inclusive, diverse, and equitable posture that recognizes it takes all of us to participate in the shaping of our future. Thank you.

Not knowing much about James Baldwin other than a parade of thought-provoking quotes, I was very interested in reading “Begin Again” by Princeton Professor Eddie S Glaude, Jr. I was not disappointed. The author presented the information in a thoughtfully engaging way.It’s a marvelous journey through the Civil Rights movement and up and through the Obama and Trump administrations. It taps into the ways Baldwin’s shift into politics injured him personally and professionally. According to Mr. Glaude, Baldwin was trapped somewhere between the pacifism of King and the militancy of X and Angela Davis. And this middle ground brought with it a great deal of criticism from his contemporaries, including Cleaver and Hughes. But Baldwin seemed to be a more transformative man than other gave him credit for being.The author focuses on the question the country has dealt with from its inception. It snakes its way through Reconstruction, the Civil Rights movement to the Trump administration. All of it pointing towards “appeals to white identity. The symbolism that white people will protect at any cost.”Much hinges on the supposed “Negro problem.” Freed from bondage, “what will be his place among obvious superiors… how might we might respond to his demands for equality.”In his early years, Baldwin believed in Thoreau’s call to “awaken the sleeper.” But after the violence and death, the church burnings, the race riots, the assassinations, he came to find there was no such thing as a Negro problem. Trying to reconcile the hate, he concluded that “Black power frightens them. White power doesn’t frighten them… It’s a waste of time to hate them… Hatred, in the end, corrodes the soul.”What is happening in the country today is a reflection of the country’s oldest battle, “… the disaffected Trump voter … feel left out of an increasingly diverse America.”Emancipation was more or less a result of a falling out between white men. And the myths and lies of Black America were renewed during Reconstruction as MLK said, “… as white historians tell, Negroes wallowed in corruption, opportunism… stupidity, were wanton evil, and ignorant… freedom was dangerous in the hands of inferior beings.” They didn’t view their own behavior and leadership as being this way, suffering from a superiority complex.Baldwin often travelled to Paris and Istanbul to find refuge, to avoid being “broken on the wheel of life.” His sexuality was sometimes an issue even amongst his own. He attempted suicide. He battled lifelong depression. But in the end, Baldwin wanted to do something unprecedented. “To create ourselves without finding it necessary to create an enemy.”I found the book fascinating although I will admit that on a few occasions it seemed slightly repetitious, like we covering the same ground again. Having scant knowledge of Baldwin’s life before reading this book, I’m not sure if there is anything revolutionary or revealing in it. I leave that to others to decide. I think it’s a great leap off point for anyone who seeks a better understanding of Baldwin, his life, his struggles, and the Civil Rights movement as it was and still is today. 5 stars.

Very informative read. Would have liked this on the big screen. A hidden figure for sure. Enjoyed this book immensely.

From this book, I see that Trump is not an aberration, but another along a continuum of the big American lie. We are not great, we are not fully a democracy, and American has never overcome its original sin of slavery. The public school American history books are fairy tales that too many white people want to perpetuate. Will we ever change and create a just society? This book leaves me hopeful in my hopelessness.

I liked the way Eddie Claude used the writing of James Baldwin to give hope to all wanting meaningful change to the way America has excepted it's past and it's importance to the future of the nation. Well done Professor Claude!