Baldwin defined racism as the white problem, not the black problem

Evidence

This brings us to the crux of the matter; what James Baldwin powerfully articulated as “the white problem.” Writing just months after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, which precipitated violent protests in more than 120 cities in tumultuous and bloody 1968, Baldwin penned the following in a New York Times op-ed: I will flatly say that the bulk of this country’s white population impresses me, and has so impressed me for a very long time, as being beyond any conceivable hope of moral rehabilitation. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 671

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Reckoning etymologically unites verbal confession and economic justice — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 649; White supremacy is economically and geopolitically self-harmful — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 668; Baldwin inverted ‘the Negro problem’ to blame white people — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America…, 330 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Baldwin inverted ‘the Negro problem’ to blame white people #corroborates (0.95) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 330
• The race problem is a white problem, not a black pathology. #corroborates (0.90) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 335
• Baldwin’s later writing turned its lens on white people’s inner damage #expands (0.80) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 187