When I first saw this video clip on a friend's FB page of James Baldwin, which is taken from the larger debate with William Buckley, I didn't know if I should push "like" or "love" or "wow" or the sad face or the mad face... because this clip, right out of "I Am Not Your Negro", which Ron and I just watched last night ... just makes me cry. I feel like I am carrying the sorrow for myself and all our ancestors and all who continue to suffer today and just all of us. And that these are the tears that have longed to be cried for centuries and beyond to cleanse us and heal us and transform us into remembering what we have forgotten... which is so much. This little video is so important, so vital. It fills me with grief and gratitude and relief because here, finally, FINALLY, are the words we all need to hear... to hear with our hearts and minds and spirits and souls. America will never be able to be the country we like to say we are until we hear this and response and lift the curtains of our illusions and ignorance, our fears and shame and anger, our insane sense of separateness from our brothers and sisters. There is another way. May each and every one of us walk through that doorway into this whole new way of being together and truly, truly seeing one another... and ourselves. ― Molly
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The Guardian first posted this clip April 1, 2017 and it now has over 12 million views. The Guardian states: "Prior to the UK release of the Oscar nominated documentary, I Am Not Your Negro, we take a look at a seminal speech by the film's subject - writer, essayist, poet and civil rights activist James Baldwin. At Cambridge University Union in 1965, Baldwin debates whether the ‘American dream’ has been achieved at the expense of African-Americans."
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