Revolutionary Workers Party: Malcolm X vs. James Baldwin

Source:The New Democrat

I have a problem with Malcolm X having a problem with the civil rights sit-ins of, I believe, from 1963, and perhaps earlier than that. Because what these young Americans were doing was saying that they were people too and that they could not be denied service simply because of their race or color. And all they were doing by going to these restaurants and diners and what Rosa Parks did on the bus by refusing to give up her seat to a Caucasian man was saying “we are here too and you can’t force us to leave.” Perhaps what Malcolm X would’ve preferred was that the demonstrators had bats or guns or something. And when a racist would tell them to move or try to physically move then that they would get hit the demonstrator

Reason Party: James Baldwin vs William F. Buckley (1965) The Land of The Free?

Source:Reason Party- author James Baldwin debating William F. Buckley, at Oxford Union, in 1965.

Source:The Daily Post

"James Baldwin vs. William F. Buckley (Part 3)" 

From Reason Party

Back in the 1960s America was the land of the free the home of the brave. But for very few people with African-Americans being forced to essentially live in an authoritarian state. And live as servants to the majority of the population and not as free Americans. But where would America be without hundreds of years of free slave labor from the Africans that the European-Americans got by kidnapping them from Africa and brought over to America to work for free. It's one thing to pay illegal immigrants slave wages and pay them under the minimum wage. But that is still better than not being paid at all.

People especially on the Right in America always talk about wealth redistribution and transfers of wealth from wealthy people to the less-fortunate, as that is some type theft or something. But what about the hundreds of years of wealth redistribution that happened in North America from African’s to Europeans. Europeans living well and living wealthy and a big part of that having to do with the fact they got free labor from African slaves. That is the biggest redistribution from one people to another in American history.

This is not a debate about whether America is a great country or not, or what we stand for as a country and people is great or not. Probably only the Far-Left thinks we are not a great country with great people. And the Far-Right thinks that only they are great and represent the best of America. 

This is a debate between James Baldwin and William Buckley, about whether the principles of what America is supposed to stand for and what we represent, the basic idea of individual freedom and does that benefit everyone or not. And the answer to that is of course it doesn’t, because we have so many Americans who simply don’t live in freedom, but subsidize Americans who do.

The Riverbends Channel: ‘James Baldwin Debates William F. Buckley (1965)’

Source:The Riverbends Channel- author James Baldwin debating William F. Buckley in 1965.

Source:The Daily Post 

“Historic debate between James Baldwin v. William F. Buckley Jr. at Cambridge University on the question: “Is the American Dream at the expense of the American Negro?

From the Riverbends Channel 

You won’t find better debates than this one, with so many intelligent, thoughtful, respectful people, a debate with both James Baldwin and William Buckley. In this debate, they are addressing the biggest issue of the 1960s, perhaps the biggest issue in the history of the United States, civil rights: should we treat all Americans regardless of race equally under the law?

As far as the debate goes, I believe the answer is obvious, that of course the American dream for Caucasian-Americans has been achieved at the expense of Africans who were kidnapped and brought to America and the Caribbean to serve Caucasians. Once the Africans were legally free from slavery and became Americans, Caucasians continued to live the American dream at the expense of African-Americans. 

The examples are obvious starting with slavery and then moving to segregation during which African-Americans were forced to live in inadequate ghetto housing and attend substandard schools. They had to settle for the only jobs they could get, such as house servants for upper and middle class Caucasian-American families, because they were denied the educational opportunities that would lead to well-paying jobs with good benefits.

KQED: James Baldwin- 'Who Is The Nigger?'

Source:KQED- Author James Baldwin, talking about the word nigger.

Source:The Daily Post

“A clip from, “Take this Hammer”… KQED’s mobile film unit follows author and activist James Baldwin in the spring of 1963, as he’s driven around San Francisco to meet with members of the local African-American community. Baldwin reflects on the racial inequality that African-Americans are forced to confront and at one point tries to lift the morale of a young man by expressing his conviction that: “There will be a Negro president of this country but it will not be the country that we are sitting in now.” 

From KQED 

James Baldwin was certainly not a nigger. Only ignorant people who do not know enough about the people they are afraid of regardless of race are niggers.

What I believe Baldwin’s point about nigger, a word I hate and not even comfortable writing, let alone saying, but what I think he was saying is that nigger was something that people who hate Africans and people of African descent call African people especially African-Americans.

Caucasian racists of European descent who are both ignorant and hateful of people with dark brown and black complexions that African people especially African-Americans tend to have.

Native-Africans just tend to have black skin unless they come from the Arab states in the North and people up there tend to look more Mediterranean decent. People with olive and brown complexions. Italians, Greeks, Southern Slavs, French, Spanish, Portuguese and so-forth.

California Newsreel: James Baldwin: ‘The Price of The Ticket’

Source:California Newsreel- James Baldwin: The Price of The Ticket.

Source:The Daily Post 

“James Baldwin (1924-1987) was at once a major twentieth century American author, a Civil Rights activist and, for two crucial decades, a prophetic voice calling Americans, Black and white, to confront their shared racial tragedy. James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket captures on film the passionate intellect and courageous writing of a man who was born black, impoverished, gay and gifted. 

James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket uses striking archival footage to evoke the atmosphere of Baldwin’s formative years – the Harlem of the 30s, his father’s fundamentalist church and the émigré demimonde of postwar Paris. Newsreel clips from the ’60’s record Baldwin’s running commentary on the drama of the Civil Rights movement. The film also explores his quiet retreats in Paris, the South of France, Istanbul and Switzerland – places where Baldwin was able to write away from the racial tensions of America. 

Writers Maya Angelou, Amiri Baraka, Ishmael Reed, William Styron and biographer David Leeming place Baldwin’s work in the African-American literary tradition – from slave narratives and black preaching to their own contemporary work. The film skillfully links excerpts from Baldwin’s major books – Go Tell it on the Mountain, Notes of a Native Son, Another Country, The Fire Next Time, Blues for Mister Charlie, If Beale Street Could Talk – to different stages in Black-white dialogue and conflict.

Towards the end of his life, as America turned its back on the challenge of racial justice, Baldwin became frustrated but rarely bitter. He kept writing and reaching in the strengthened belief that : “All men are brothers – That’s the bottom line.” 

From California Newsreel 

I think James Baldwin’s best statement in this video is that he wasn’t a member of a race or a religion or any group, that he was a human being. 

I imagine that is all James Baldwin wanted to be seen as and judged as, James Baldwin the person and perhaps who just happens to also be part of this group or these groups. 

Martin King’s’ dream was that he dreamed of a world where his children wouldn’t be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Or how I would put it and how I look at people as both a person and a Liberal, that I look at people as individuals first. And perhaps as members of groups second or even further down the line. But not as part of this race, ethnicity, religion or any other class that has nothing to do with how good of a person they are. And how they should be judged and treated in life.

Malcolm X Network: James Baldwin On Malcolm X (1963)

Source:JD Productions LLC- Nation of Islam Minister Malcolm X & I believe Bayard Rustin.

Source:The Daily Post 

"Malcolm X Debate with James Baldwin September 5, 1963" 

From JD Productions LLC 

Nation of Islam Minister Malcolm X's message here, is that integration by itself, should never be the goal of the African-American community. The goal should be freedom, whether they're living and working, as well as socializing, shopping, with European-Americans, or not. 

Minister X believed that Africans have the exact same amount of freedom and responsibility under law and under the Constitution, as European-Americans and that those rights and freedom should be enforced now. And that Africans shouldn't wait for Europeans to give them their rights and freedom, since they already have them under law and the Constitution.