Status Updates From The Evidence of Things Not ...

This book, as all of James Baldwin’s books tend to do, is going to do something to me.

The foreword by Stacey Abram’s was all I needed to know. Mentally preparing myself

And it was disastrous for the Defense to claim, “There has never been a Black mass murderer,” for it allowed Slaton to reply, unanswerably, “Idi Amin was a Black mass murderer.”

Baldwin, James. The Evidence of Things Not Seen: Reissued Edition (p. 106). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

"The Western world is located somewhere between the Statue of Liberty and the pillar of salt."

Baldwin, James. The Evidence of Things Not Seen: Reissued Edition (p. 73). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

"For you, or for me, for example, the missing child distorts, totally, the universe, but, for Authority, it is a statistic and, for bureaucracy, a detail. Only when these details and statistics begin to multiply is a public danger perceived."

Baldwin, James. The Evidence of Things Not Seen: Reissued Edition (p. 45). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

"For you, or for me, for example, the missing child distorts, totally, the universe, but, for Authority, it is a statistic and, for bureaucracy, a detail. Only when these details and statistics begin to multiply is a public danger perceived."

Baldwin, James. The Evidence of Things Not Seen: Reissued Edition (p. 45). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

"...the Northern city demolished, simply, any meaningful relationship at all between the Black and the White communities—indeed, it is not too much to say that the Northern city demolished all communities. In the North, we lived in neighbor(!)hoods."

Baldwin, James. The Evidence of Things Not Seen: Reissued Edition (p. 33). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

"The young are the community’s sacred—and only—hope, and it is the responsibility of the elders to guide and protect and raise the young—which means, also, and above all, assuming the authority to correct the young."

Baldwin, James. The Evidence of Things Not Seen: Reissued Edition (p. 16). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

"This meant, though, that I was approaching the quicksand of my ignorance and judgment had to be suspended."

Baldwin, James. The Evidence of Things Not Seen: Reissued Edition (p. 5). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.

'"The humanity of black children, of black men and women, of black lives, has ever been a conundrum for America. Forty years on, Baldwin’s writing reminds us that we have never resolved the core query: Do black lives matter?'"

Baldwin, James. The Evidence of Things Not Seen: Reissued Edition (p. xv). Henry Holt and Co.. Kindle Edition.