Earlier quoted context omitted.
> An ignorant person could believe that American ideals mean that American society was built for all Americans equally, but the audience members were not ignorant people. I imagine most of them knew that Jefferson was a slave owner, and all the rest of it that you lucidly describe. Baldwin did three things to earn their respect. Firstly, he lured them into seeing racial injustice without triggering their defences or…
I am not sure why you think the audience had tribal hostilities against him. These people were not klansmen, they were young British aristocrats whose parents were overseeing the deconstruction of an empire on the basis of the enlightened principles of the day. Baldwin was not criticizing them particularly, he was criticizing the crude upstarts from across the pond. I'm not aware of any good reason to believe they we…
Re: James Baldwin, Here and Elsewhere
#31Indeed those people were not klansmen. They appreciated the oratorical trouncing for what it was, and for what it wasn't. If Baldwin had simply said, in graphic terms, how not nice life is for a black person, I don't think he could have moved them so.