Wow.
Wow wow wow.
I just read this essay by James Baldwin and WOW.
I’m sure you’ve seen the Baldwin quote going around, “The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.”
But did you know it comes from the essay Notes on the House of Bondage? The “house of bondage” is the United States, the "empire," and wow oh wow are there some other great quotes in that essay. As in, the whole essay. READ IT.
He wrote it in 1980. 44 years ago. It could have been written today, so little has changed. But things ARE changing. Consider this quote, while thinking of the Palestinian people sharing their heartbreak, sharing themselves:
“I am speaking of the breakup–the end–of the so-overextended Western empire. I am thinking of the black and nonwhite peoples who are shattering, redefining and recreating history–making all things new–simply by declaring their presence, by delivering their testimony. The empire never intended that this testimony should be heard, but, if I hold my peace, the very stones will cry out.”
Wow.
Or think about this quote, when you think about anyone celebrating the rescue of four Israeli hostages without giving a second thought to the fact that over TWO HUNDRED Palestinians were murdered, mowed down, in the process getting those four:
“When Americans look out on the world, they see nothing but dark and menacing strangers who appear to have no sense of rhythm at all, nor any respect or affection for white people; and white Americans really do not know what to make of all this, except to increase the defense budget.”
And think of this quote, when you think of Israel starving Gaza, when you read on Jurist.org that “The World Food Programme (WFP) reported Thursday that Sudan is experiencing unprecedented levels of hunger and violence, with the nation’s conflict on the verge of becoming the world’s largest hunger crisis due to increased violent attacks by paramilitary groups.”
“This is the charged, the dangerous, moment, when everything must be re-examined, must be made new; when nothing at all can be taken for granted. One looks again at the word "famine." At this hour of the world’s history, famine must be considered a man-made phenomenon and one looks at who is starving.”
Oh man. The rest of it is so good. It’s about the relationship of children to their elders, and vice versa. It’s about learning from one another.
“Someone my age, for example, may be pleased and proud that Carter has blacks in his Cabinet. A younger person may wonder just what their function is in such a Cabinet. They will be keenly aware, too, that blacks called upon to represent the Republic are, very often, thereby prohibited from representing blacks. A man my age, schooled in adversity and skilled in compromise, may choose not to force the issue of defense spending versus the bleak and criminal misery of the black and white populations here, but a younger man may say, out loud, that he will not fight for a country that has never fought for him and, further, that the myth and menace of global war are nothing more and nothing less than a coward’s means of distracting attention from the real crimes and concerns of this Republic.”
And it ends with an action; forging a new language. This is the beauty of the dreamers, of anyone with half an imagination to envision a world beyond capitalism and colonialism. This empire WILL end, one way or another. Start building a new world now. Hey, you could join the IWW, that’s what I just did. Get to know your neighbors and be there for them when they need you. You can't wait.
“We have come to the end of a language and are now about the business of forging a new one. For we have survived, children, the very last white country the world will ever see.”
READ IT:
https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/notes-house-bondage/
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