I’m visiting video documents of James Baldwin to further my knowledge of systemic racism – what was identified in my youth, what has not changed, what it is like to reside in a country that would rather you were somewhere or someone else.
These videos were filmed on film using film and all the chemicals for production when I was a child of a single-digit age. Although it’s tempting to express outrage that these artifacts were unknown:buried:concealed:hidden from me, I will take this moment to reflect that the tech which allows me to reach through the webs and communicate did not exist until ARPANET grew up into internet and Bill Gates and the Cisco kids could bring it all home.
And so today, I am grateful to be able to drop these links down here for reference.
James Baldwin and Dick Gregory. (44 minutes)
“Before that, where were you born?” – James Baldwin
James Baldwin and William Buckley. (60 minutes)
I could barely tolerate William Buckley when he was alive. Compared to the current conservative voices, perhaps I’ll be more charitable in a posthumous viewing.
And to be clear, although these videos are education in awareness of a corrupted system, it is the action we take that brings change, it is the silence we break.
