Baldwin grounded brotherhood in shared human condition, not religion

Evidence

If one accepts my basic assumption, which is that all men are brothers—simply because all men share the same condition, however different the details of their lives may be—then it is perfectly possible, it seems to me, that in re-creating ourselves, in saving ourselves, we can re-create and save many others: whosoever will. I certainly think that this possibility ought to be kept very vividly in the forefront of our consciousness. The value of a human being is never indicated by the color of his skin; the value of a human being is all that I hold sacred; and I know that I do not become better by making another worse. One need not read the New Testament to discover that. One need only read history and look at the world—one need only, in fact, look into one’s own mirror. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 357

Categorization

• XREF: Glaude’s framing of Baldwin ‘even at the height of Black Power’ insisting on universal brotherhood is a strong data point for the reader’s recanonization case.
• SHARE: The phrase ‘I do not become better by making another worse’ is a compact, shareable Baldwin maxim worth sending to a reader engaged with political ethics.