• Log In

The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

A Philosophy Podcast and Philosophy Blog

Subscribe on Android Spotify Google Podcasts audible patreon
  • Home
  • Podcast
    • PEL Network Episodes
    • Publicly Available PEL Episodes
    • Paywalled and Ad-Free Episodes
    • PEL Episodes by Topic
    • Nightcap
    • Philosophy vs. Improv
    • Pretty Much Pop
    • Nakedly Examined Music
    • (sub)Text
    • Phi Fic Podcast
    • Combat & Classics
    • Constellary Tales
  • Blog
  • About
    • PEL FAQ
    • Meet PEL
    • About Pretty Much Pop
    • Philosophy vs. Improv
    • Nakedly Examined Music
    • Meet Phi Fic
    • Listener Feedback
    • Links
  • Join
    • Become a Citizen
    • Join Our Mailing List
    • Log In
  • Donate
  • Store
    • Episodes
    • Swag
    • Everything Else
    • Cart
    • Checkout
    • My Account
  • Contact
  • Mailing List

Episode 162: James Baldwin on Race in America (Part One)

April 10, 2017 by Mark Linsenmayer 12 Comments

http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/partiallyexaminedlife/PEL_ep_162pt1_3-21-17.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:39 — 42.8MB)

On the film I Am Not Your Negro and the essays "Notes of a Native Son" (1955) and The Fire Next Time (1963).

Baldwin is a go-to figure at this point in discussions of race; his essays, stories, and speeches provide a key touchstone in discussing how racism has warped our culture. So, how do we translate his testimony into philosophical theory? When he talks about the psychological/sociological maladies of both black and white folks resulting from the overt racism of his day, to what extent do his insights apply to us now, when racism has become more subtle?

The full foursome are rejoined by Lawrence Ware to shed new light on our discussion from ep. 161. We focus on Baldwin's middle way between MLK's love and Malcolm X's rage and his critique of the American dream. How do you oppose the inhumanity of others without demonizing them, and thereby becoming inhuman yourself?

Buy the book version of I Am Not Your Negro. Buy the James Baldwin: Collected Essays that includes the rest of our readings. You can also read the essays online: "Notes of a Native Son," and the two essays that make up The Fire Next Time, the shorter “My Dungeon Shook — Letter to my Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of Emancipation" and the more lengthy "Down at the Cross — Letter from a Region of My Mind."

You can watch several interviews used in the film or referred to on the episode: This 1963 one with Kenneth Clark is key; the clip is bookmarked at the claim from the film that white people created this despised other category; to fix America, we have to figure out what psychological need drove that creation. The short clip actually used in this episode from a Dick Cavett interview is here and another key point in that interview is here. The 1984 interview Mark refers to where Baldwin reflects on the lack of real progress in addressing the results of racism is here, bookmarked at at the point Mark paraphrased about the the increasing "economic uselessness" of blacks according to establishment.

Continued on part 2, or get your full, ad-free Citizen Edition right now with your PEL membership. Please support PEL!

Baldwin picture by Solomon Grundy.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Filed Under: Podcast Episodes Tagged With: essayists, James Baldwin, philosophy and race, philosophy podcast, political philosophy

Comments

  1. Ken says

    April 10, 2017 at 9:41 pm

    I think it is worth watching this famous debate at the Cambridge Union between Baldwin and William F. Buckley to get a better idea of who Baldwin was and his impact on the discussion.

    Reply
  2. Alan Thomas says

    April 12, 2017 at 4:55 am

    Baldwin was a great and moving writer, and his accusations were absolutely on point for the time. But note that in his letter to his nephew, he also wrote “For this is your home, my friend, do not be driven from it; great men have done great things here, and will again, and we can make America what America must become.” This is quite different from the viewpoint of someone like Ta-Nehisi Coates, who sees America as a fundamentally white supremacist nation, now and forevermore.

    It’s tricky territory, to argue “but things have gotten so much better”, because it can be taken as “racism is over, quitcher bitching”. And there are those who do make specious arguments of that sort. That is not what I am saying. More along the lines of the aphorism President Obama was fond of quoting: “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I consider it undeniable that our country has bent more toward justice (in net, with setbacks like the current one, obviously) since _The Fire Next Time_.

    But that does not mean we’ve *arrived* at full justice. To move in the right direction over the long run is what we should aspire to, even though it requires accepting half-measures or quarter-measures, and living with the fact that we may not witness full justice in our lifetimes or even our grandchildren’s lifetimes. But to shrug off progress as nonexistent or insufficient is, I believe, a grave mistake that promotes apathy and despair. When in fact, African Americans have tended in recent years to be significantly more optimistic than whites, something I doubt was the case in Baldwin’s time:

    http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article70329267.html#storylink=cpy
    “White voters were more pessimistic, 76-20 percent, while African-Americans were divided, with 48 percent seeing America on the wrong track and 47 percent saying the country’s course is fine.”

    Reply
    • Matt says

      May 1, 2017 at 12:10 am

      I mentioned on part 2 how the strategy of the contemporary movements are detrimental to that brilliant way Baldwin held fast the middle sight between both movements. I personally despise the jargon of micro aggression and white privilege, for the simple fact they’re too nuanced and lack the point of view of their subject but demand the subject occupy their point. This is will always fail for so many fundamental reasons. Black Justice is Universal Justice therefore I always make it my duty to offer up a universal strategy that focuses on the real hand that takes us out of society. The overeach of laws and their violation of property rights is a fight worth one person’s freedom and it doesn’t vector on one particular race though it certainly affects the poor. Baldwin will last unless these ideologies and their jargon destroy his legacy, which if it could. If Baldwin could see title nine complaints and memes and youtube he would see an opportunity to do much better than this, I think.

      Reply
      • Alan Thomas says

        May 1, 2017 at 10:14 pm

        I was with you until halfway through, when you started sounding a little libertarian for my tastes.

        Reply
  3. Luke T says

    April 13, 2017 at 3:52 am

    James Baldwin’s Archive, Long Hidden, Comes (Mostly) Into View

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/12/arts/james-baldwins-archive-long-hidden-comes-mostly-into-view.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

    Reply
  4. Steve says

    April 17, 2017 at 10:53 pm

    There is nothing more revolting than a “guilty white liberal”

    Reply
  5. Luke T says

    August 5, 2018 at 5:39 am

    Identity politics coda:

    Elucidations episode #107: Linda Martín Alcoff discusses identity and history
    https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/elucidations/2018/08/03/episode-107-linda-martin-alcoff-discusses-identity-and-history/

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Episode 162: James Baldwin on Race in America (Part Two) | The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast | A Philosophy Podcast and Blog says:
    April 17, 2017 at 7:00 am

    […] continues part 1, or get the unbroken, ad-free Citizen […]

    Reply
  2. Phi Fic #12 Stories by James Baldwin | The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast | A Philosophy Podcast and Blog says:
    April 22, 2017 at 1:58 pm

    […] Linsenmayer for being our guest this month! And if you haven't already done so, check out the PEL's James Baldwin on Race in America […]

    Reply
  3. PEL Special: Phi Fic on James Baldwin’s Fiction | The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast | A Philosophy Podcast and Blog says:
    April 24, 2017 at 7:00 am

    […] supplement our episode on Baldwin's essays, we're doing a crossover on to the PEL feed here from the Phi Fic podcast, which you should […]

    Reply
  4. Charity, Straw-men and Race – Pierce Marks says:
    February 20, 2018 at 1:19 pm

    […] basically white, and James Baldwin wasn’t a name I’d heard. Lawrence Ware’s appearance on the PEL podcast made my unknown presumption […]

    Reply
  5. Episode 210: Franz Fanon's Black Existentialism (Part One) | Daily Program Newspaper says:
    March 1, 2019 at 6:33 am

    […] previous entries on race with Law Ware: ep. 52 on DuBois and MLK, ep. 161 on White Privilege, and ep. 162 on James Baldwin. Also see our episodes on bell hooks and on Sartre’s […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

PEL Live Show 2023

Brothers K Live Show

Citizenship has its Benefits

Become a PEL Citizen
Become a PEL Citizen, and get access to all paywalled episodes, early and ad-free, including exclusive Part 2's for episodes starting September 2020; our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat more causally; a community of fellow learners, and more.

Rate and Review

Nightcap

Listen to Nightcap
On Nightcap, listen to the guys respond to listener email and chat more casually about their lives, the making of the show, current events and politics, and anything else that happens to come up.

Subscribe to Email Updates

Select list(s):

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Support PEL

Buy stuff through Amazon and send a few shekels our way at no extra cost to you.

Tweets by PartiallyExLife

Recent Comments

  • Mark Linsenmayer on Ep. 302: Erasmus Praises Foolishness (Part Two)
  • Mark Linsenmayer on Ep. 308: Moore’s Proof of Mind-Independent Reality (Part Two for Supporters)
  • Mark Linsenmayer on Ep. 201: Marcus Aurelius’s Stoicism with Ryan Holiday (Citizen Edition)
  • MartinK on Ep. 201: Marcus Aurelius’s Stoicism with Ryan Holiday (Citizen Edition)
  • Wayne Barr on Ep. 308: Moore’s Proof of Mind-Independent Reality (Part Two for Supporters)

About The Partially Examined Life

The Partially Examined Life is a philosophy podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don’t have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we’re talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion

Become a PEL Citizen!

As a PEL Citizen, you’ll have access to a private social community of philosophers, thinkers, and other partial examiners where you can join or initiate discussion groups dedicated to particular readings, participate in lively forums, arrange online meet-ups for impromptu seminars, and more. PEL Citizens also have free access to podcast transcripts, guided readings, episode guides, PEL music, and other citizen-exclusive material. Click here to join.

Blog Post Categories

  • (sub)Text
  • Aftershow
  • Announcements
  • Audiobook
  • Book Excerpts
  • Citizen Content
  • Citizen Document
  • Citizen News
  • Close Reading
  • Combat and Classics
  • Constellary Tales
  • Exclude from Newsletter
  • Featured Ad-Free
  • Featured Article
  • General Announcements
  • Interview
  • Letter to the Editor
  • Misc. Philosophical Musings
  • Nakedly Examined Music Podcast
  • Nakedly Self-Examined Music
  • NEM Bonus
  • Not School Recording
  • Not School Report
  • Other (i.e. Lesser) Podcasts
  • PEL Music
  • PEL Nightcap
  • PEL's Notes
  • Personal Philosophies
  • Phi Fic Podcast
  • Philosophy vs. Improv
  • Podcast Episode (Citizen)
  • Podcast Episodes
  • Pretty Much Pop
  • Reviewage
  • Song Self-Exam
  • Supporter Exclusive
  • Things to Watch
  • Vintage Episode (Citizen)
  • Web Detritus

Follow:

Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | Apple Podcasts

Copyright © 2009 - 2023 · The Partially Examined Life, LLC. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Copyright Policy

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in