Black Power made Baldwin abandon hope of awakening white America.

Evidence

Baldwin’s understanding of Black Power came, in part, with a rejection of this view. He rejected not so much the analysis that turned the so-called Negro problem on its head as he did the faith that we could convince those who were so deeply invested in being white that they should see themselves otherwise. He lamented that we cannot do what Thoreau called us to do: “awaken the sleeper.” The costs of America’s lies had become too much to bear. The dead kept piling up. By 1968, Baldwin admitted that he was not the man he used to be and, in a fit of rage, shouted that he could care less about what happened to the country. White people deserved whatever happened to them, he said. The problem is that we don’t deserve any of it. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Begin Again, 339

Categorization

• XREF: This is the causal pivot of ‘the lie’ — the dead piling up extinguished Baldwin’s faith that white Americans could be convinced to see themselves otherwise.