Baldwin read Reagan’s election as proof white America would never change on race

Evidence

Baldwin offers us resources. He struggled mightily after the murder of Dr. King. He admitted that he went to pieces. Twelve years later, he watched the country elect Reagan, a clear indication, if there ever was one, that white America had no intention of changing when it came to matters of race. Less than a month before Jimmy took his last breath, he said that Reagan represented “the justification of…being white.” Of the choices that led to Reagan’s election and caused so much pain, he had little sympathy to offer. “I don’t care who says what,” he said. “I watched it happen. And all this, because they want to be white. And why do they want to be white? Because it’s the only way to justify the slaughter…—they’re trapped.” Until the end, Jimmy never stopped being a disturber of the peace. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 577

Categorization

• XREF: Direct biographical ammunition for the reader’s defense of late Baldwin as the essential one — ‘I watched it happen’ is a witness’s testimony.