Baldwin needed geographic distance to see and bear witness to America.

Evidence

I suppose that many people do blame me for being out of the States as often as I am. But one can’t afford to worry about that, because…you do what you have to do, the way you have to do it. As someone who is outside of the States, you realize that it is impossible to get out. The American power follows one everywhere. But I’m not, any longer, worried so much about that. I am worried about getting my work done, getting on paper, which is the best way for me, a certain record, which hopefully would be of some value to somebody, some day. In any case, I have to do it and it’s part of the symptoms of this century that I can’t do it very easily at home or, probably by this time, not at all. And, in a way, being out, even temporarily, and with a perfect awareness that one is not really very far out of the United States…one sees it better from a distance…from another place, from another country. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 422

Categorization

• SEED: The idea that ‘the American power follows one everywhere’ and distance enables clearer witness could anchor a piece on exile, distance, and critical perspective as method.
• ADDENDUM: Baldwin’s need for distance to bear witness parallels the elsewhere-frame the reader uses to defend late Baldwin.