Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own in The Majority Report Podcast Goodreads Group

Jan 03, 2021 Johnsonk5 rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: politics, history

Glaude's portrait of Baldwin is intimate, thoughtful and, in some places, utterly beautiful. Glaude artfully portrays Baldwin as he grapples with a distressing political and social realm that is, unfortunately, not too different from our own. The significance of this great American intellectual has grown in recent years and it's not unreasonable to say that he's more influential today than he was in his own time. As such, I think many people will find Glaude's book to be worthwhile if only for t Glaude's portrait of Baldwin is intimate, thoughtful and, in some places, utterly beautiful. Glaude artfully portrays Baldwin as he grapples with a distressing political and social realm that is, unfortunately, not too different from our own. The significance of this great American intellectual has grown in recent years and it's not unreasonable to say that he's more influential today than he was in his own time. As such, I think many people will find Glaude's book to be worthwhile if only for their love of it's central character.

But as I get older and more cynical, I can't help but wonder whether the message at the bottom of this book is worth anything to us today. The notion that America needs to "Begin Again" is one which has been circulating in liberal and progressive circles for some time now and I certainly agree that if we don't reinvent ourselves, we'll tear this country apart. But how can we do such a thing? How can we spark, and see to fruition, a revolution of values in any country, let alone one as divided as our own? I think if the process were as simple as hitting the reset button, then Glaude's book would be a bit more helpful, but since no such easy solution exists, I would have liked a blueprint or at least a strategy for how we might "Begin Again," but this is missing from Glaude's book.

Glaude, like many other writers, makes this problem worse by taking as a presupposition the fact that Donald Trump is a visage of existing racism in society. Again, I don't disagree with this, but there are 70+ million Americans that do, and in fact they might even question the premise that any such racism exists. How are we to begin again without addressing these people? Surely they aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

There are, however, a few threads which may be of some use.
The first is that Glaude points out that issues of race are often assumed to be a problem for people of color to solve. But this plays directly into the racial problems in question. The fact is, issues of race are problems for white people to solve, since that is where such problems originate. In this view, Glaude may see it as unnecessary for him to model solutions for problems which aren't his to solve. The ball, so to speak, is in our court. This is an important insight.

The second comes from Glaude's discussion of monuments. Perhaps the best first step towards a new beginning is to untether ourselves from relics of the past. If we want to abolish our racist past, we must begin by abolishing those monuments which seek to honor it. It is best to begin by "philosophizing with a hammer" and destroying old values to make way for new ones.

This need not be a grim process. It may be that by shattering old icons, we make room for new ones. If we remove statues of Nathan Bedford Forrest, Robert E Lee and John Calhoun, we make room for statues in honor of Frederick Douglas, Gabriel's Rebellion and, perhaps, even Baldwin. In any case, the first step is to reckon with our country's traditional heroes and replace them with new ones who better fit with our values. Another important insight.

Where I think Glaude falls short is, despite his dancing around the subject, he does not reckon with Trumpism. He presupposes that Trump is a sign that we haven't evolved from the times of Nixon and Reagan and, worse, he presupposes that this is a bad thing. But, as I said, 70+ million people disagree and many of them are willing to go to war to defend their own vision of America. And the problem is worse, because in 2020 Republicans made considerable gains with people of color, despite all of Trump's apparent racism. Of course, Glaude was unaware of this since his book predates the 2020 election, but I simply can't find any tools here for dealing with this pressing issue. As I noted earlier, he may not have intended to do this, but Glaude fails to address people who disagree with him. I must say that I do think this is a flaw in his work which renders it somewhat less useful than it could have been.

To summarize all these disorganized threads of thought, Glaude's book is beautiful and worth the read but unless you accept his presuppositions, it will be utterly useless to read this book. While Glaude does give us some important insights into how to begin again, he does not provide a blueprint or a model for such a reinvention. (Again, it seems he may not have intended to do such a thing, but it's still worth noting). ...more

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May 10, 2022 Jonathan rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, blm

Glaude is strongest when adapting and applying the words of Baldwin to our times--especially comparing the similarities of the Trump era and the Age of Reagan for example. His notes at the end thanking his students for being open with their anxieties about the times show that he's a keen listener. He's also amazing at taking not just quotes from Baldwin, but the life of the man, his trauma, and his personality, and talking about what we can learn from it. The section at the end, where he looks f ...more

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Apr 28, 2020 Michael Brown marked it as to-read

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