Many of Baldwin's thoughts are just as relevant today as they were in 1963. Thanks for the links.

No problem.

Sometimes I wish I had all the storage and bandwidth and time (rights!) to put together a really massive catalog and archive of such stuff. I know many exist but I'd like to do it with no regard for anyone's sensitivities but my own.

"Today's black middle class does very well, thank you. Its politics ought to reflect that. The very tenuous nature of our alliances with immigrant populations are a clue. So where is the thrust, and if we are economically mainstream, why are our politics of empowerment not mainstream? I think it is the mistake between the relative and absolutes in the politics of emergence."

I lifted the above quote from Cobb's website because his reference to black Americans' tenuous alliance with immigrant populations reminded me of an essay by Toni Morrison that I read some time ago that directly addresses and answers his point. Morrison drew on a scene from, I believe, the Barry Levison film "Avalon" in which two immigrant brothers bully and harass a young black boy over a coveted spot outside a train station. I have forgotten the title of the essay and I could be mistaken too about the film although not the scene she uses as a launching pad to explore the basis of this "tenuous alliance".

Does anyone recall reading this essay?

P6,

I don't want to go all gushy and sentimental in you but the Baldwin clips brought tears to my eyes and a deluge of good memories. I can easily recall how when Baldwin would appear on television that my father, his younger brother and their brothers-in-law and other male friends would sit in nearly rapt attention listening to what he had to say and nodding their heads in agreement. These were men who labored with their hands and worked for wages but they felt a deep bond between themselves and this Harlem-born black intellectual. All of these men are gone now and I'm sorry that Baldwin died not knowing how much his words meant to them because they felt he truly understood what they faced everyday. Thanks for posting the links.

If this 00' generation ever had a prophet, it would be Baldwin. Dyson and West are of his pedigree and important (very), but how Jimmy injects himself into the world fully Black-neither apologetic or haughty-, deepening himself in our socio-cultural struggle while removing the lies that warp our perception and how we are percieved...The unvarnished truth he tells.

The quote reveals the intensity of the work to follow. Why did (does) America need a nigger? Why was that stereotype created? Why is it still so functional now? Why do some rappers need a niggah/niggah image to be successful?

Putting together a digital library of these types of materials is something that wealthy, philanthropically inclined blacks like Cosby, Winfrey etc. should be inclined to support. I'm not being sarcastic here when I suggest that you and Cobb would probably make a good team. He could raise the money and be the corporate face of the organization while you would serve as the principal collector, curator and archivist. And, yes, both of you should be well compensated for your efforts.

I agree Cobb and I would make a good team. His rhetoric implies a lot more detachment from the fate of Black folks than I sense in hi.

I observe that those who take care of their own family first, and their extended family second tend to have a whole lot more available to contribute beyond that (on the third tier) than those who take care of everyone else first.

Why did (does) America need a nigger? Why was that stereotype created? Why is it still so functional now? Why do some rappers need a niggah/niggah image to be successful?

There are multiple sides to this story. Telling only one begs a myriad of questions from the others. The evaluative approach I prefer is psychological. For what it's worth, I suspect that an older variant of Malignant Egophrenia (ME) MAY be at the heart of the problem. Your thoughts?

Actually, you nailed me on that score PT. I've already reserved the domain Kwakufoundation.org. I have every intention of making a large cross referenceable library of African American history materials part of my legacy. If I can persuade my father to actually retire, I could get him started on the work.

BTW, I've got a few things posted over at my domain like this:
http://www.mdcbowen.org/cobb/archives/001936.html

My favorite Baldwin quotes:
Identity would seem to be the garment with which one covers the nakedness of the self: in which case, it is best that the garment be loose, a little like the robes of the desert, through which robes one's nakedness can always be felt, and, sometimes, discerned. This trust in one's nakedness is all that gives one the power to change one's robes.

and

All you are ever told in this country about being black is that it is a terrible, terrible thing to be. Now, in order to survive this, you have to really dig down into yourself and re-create yourself, really, according to no image which yet exists in America. You have to impose, in fact - this may sound very strange - you have to decide who you are, and force the world to deal with you, not with its idea of you.

“No one can possibly know what is about to happen.
It is happening each time, for the first time, for the only time”

One of my favorite Baldwin quotes.