James Baldwin interview: "How much time do you want for your progress?"

[Nevilledog]

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Breya.
@TheBlackLayers
Yesterday someone tried to tell me we were taking “baby steps” and making progress. Today i woke up thinking about this James Baldwin interview. “How much time do you want for your progress?”

[Shaddox]

1. Thanks for posting - Baldwin is one of America's intellectual giants. This is on point!

[GulfCoast66]

2. Everyone here should watch Baldwin's debate with Buckley at Cambridge in 1965.

It’s eye opening. Buckley had not yet realized that his views would be considered anathema and had not toned down and tried to hide his true beliefs. It sheds light on the situation today.

Baldwin cleaned his clock.

Really, watch it. It’s on YouTube. Best hour you will ever spend.

[Solly Mack]

3. K&R

Exactly.

It is always - always - people with the rights and the people who aren't targeted because of their skin color, or sexuality, or gender/spectrum or ethnicity or non-dominant religion or lack of religion - that tell those of us in one or more of the groups who have been and still are denied rights to be patient. To wait. It takes time.

You can't have rights because it takes time to change minds.

You can't have rights because someone might be offended - at this time. (But they'll come a time when all the racists and sexists and bigots will have a group-wide transformation and, like magic, everyone will have rights - because that's the way it works. Apparently.)

You can't have rights now because that's just the way it works. Acting as if everyone had to wait for their rights because rights are, somehow, something that come in due course. I mean, everyone knows how straight, white Christian men have had to struggle to have rights in America, right? Right? Right?

You can't have rights because voters might get upset and have their feelings hurt and will refuse to vote for a Democrat. (And this one has been said for years and years and years - and guess what? People are still waiting - regardless of how many Democrats are elected. Conservatives will always fight against people having equal rights - so why bother catering to them? Support doing the right thing from the get-go - support equality and equity for all.

The ONLY thing catering to conservatives does is grant their bigotry legitimacy. Each and every time the bigotry of a conservative is given consideration, you're telling them their hate and ignorance is valid. That it has merit.