Baldwin’s Negro (1969)
How has this helped you reconnect?
Connecting to the culture of the descendants of slaves in the US. This speech by James Baldwin with Dick Gregory in London was an incredibly powerful find for me. It opens with a conversation I've had a handful of times with others about not knowing where I'm from due to American slavery. Baldwin explains where his names comes from, as the last name of the slaveowners who owned his ancestors, and that was the moment I decided to change my last name four years ago. It recontextualized my understanding of black self-determination in the United States, allowed me to come in full ownership of my body, and in a very real way, established a new mode of black identity in my life going forward.
LINK TO MEDIA
Submitted by: Alex Beige
Connecting to the culture of the descendants of slaves in the US. This speech by James Baldwin with Dick Gregory in London was an incredibly powerful find for me. It opens with a conversation I've had a handful of times with others about not knowing where I'm from due to American slavery. Baldwin explains where his names comes from, as the last name of the slaveowners who owned his ancestors, and that was the moment I decided to change my last name four years ago. It recontextualized my understanding of black self-determination in the United States, allowed me to come in full ownership of my body, and in a very real way, established a new mode of black identity in my life going forward.
LINK TO MEDIA
Submitted by: Alex Beige