Not only was he one of the finest writers of his day, he was one of the finest orators as well. To hear him speak! While the racial reality of the United States has changed significantly since Baldwin spoke, forty-plus years ago now, the reality of alienation at the heart of Baldwin’s critique remains. And racism remains; now even more leavened by class. Baldwin’s alienation, his own and his appreciation of it, is heightened by his vast empathy.
Apropos the previous post. Listen. Do you hear echoes of your own life? How much has changed for poor blacks, for the poor in general, for immigrants, for all those on the outside looking in? The dislocation between the ideal and the reality is, as ever, ever present. The schism in our society between those that take and those taken from is as great as any time; including the time of chattel. Are not the truths he tells yet to be recognized? If we haven’t confronted our racial history, how can we claim to have moved on from it? I hear a warning still.
Rustbelt Radical 
Yes, an excellent point. Baldwin speaks to Stonewall- before and after- just as powerfully. His identification with the despised was both personal and universal. A brilliant man.
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A fitting post for the 40th anniversary of Stonewall as well, being as Baldwin explored not just the alienation of race and poverty but also sexual orientation. He was attacked for his openess by many even within the Civil Rights ‘community’ (in Soul on Ice for example). As for empathy and honesty, there are few better than Baldwin:
“It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.”
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