The Evidence of Things Not Said: James Baldwin and the Promise of American Democracy

by Lawrie Balfour

This examination of James Baldwin's essays explores his contribution to political theory.... The book concludes with a discussion of Baldwin's complicated relation with language and a consideration of his significance in the political landscape of the 21st century.
― Journal of Social Work Education The Evidence of Things Not Said employs the rich essays of James Baldwin to interrogate the politics of race in American democracy. Lawrie Balfour advances the political discussion of Baldwin's work, and regards him as a powerful political thinker whose work deserves full consideration. Baldwin's essays challenge appeals to race-blindness and formal but empty guarantees of equality and freedom. They undermine white presumptions of racial innocence and simultaneously refute theories of persecution that define African Americans solely as innocent victims. Unsettling fixed categories, Baldwin's essays construct a theory of race consciousness that captures the effects of racial identity in everyday experience. Balfour persuasively reads Baldwin's work alongside that of W. E. B. Du Bois to accentuate how double consciousness works differently on either side of the color line. She contends that the allusiveness and incompleteness of Baldwin's essays sustains the tension between general claims about American racial history and the singularity of individual experiences. The Evidence of Things Not Said establishes Baldwin's contributions to democratic theory and situates him as an indispensable voice in contemporary debates about racial injustice.

208 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2000

About the author

Lawrie Balfour teaches political theory and American studies at the University of Virginia. The author of Democracy's Reconstruction: Thinking Politically with W. E. B. Du Bois (2011) and The Evidence of Things Not Said: James Baldwin and the Promise of American Democracy (2001), she has published numerous articles and book chapters of race, gender, literature, and democracy. Currently she is working on two projects: one on reparations for slavery, Jim Crow, and their legacies; and another on the meanings of freedom in Toni Morrison's novels and essays. She also serves as editor of Political Theory.

Reviews

[Cortland Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very rich in its context. A lot to take in at once. It displays the struggle of trying to define something as complex as racial consciousness. James Baldwin had interesting viewpoints on certain topics. I can definitely see him pissing a lot of people off but that didn’t stop him. Writing is a gift that only a few bold men will ever receive. James Baldwin was one of those men!