And I was trying to deal with my own despair and disillusionment, and so I turned to him in that moment.”ĭespite the pandemic of racism in America, Glaude still has hope for the future, he said. But Baldwin is trying to come to terms with the fact that the country has assassinated Martin Luther King, Jr.… And here we are in our moment, after Barack Obama’s presidency, and then the vitriol of the Tea Party, voter suppression and voter ID laws, and then we vomited up Donald Trump.

“Most folks say he’s bitter, he’s angry, his rage has overwhelmed his heart. “The later Baldwin is trying to come to terms with America’s betrayal,” Glaude said. Glaude’s book focuses on Baldwin’s later writings, which, he said, many people find “unsettling.”

The book, released last month, has garnered significant praise from critics, with a reviewer for Kirkus writing, “Baldwin’s genius glimmers throughout as Glaude effectively demonstrates how truth does not die with the one who spoke it.”Īsked by Noah whether anything has changed since Baldwin’s time, Glaude responded, “Baldwin has this wonderful line: ‘America’s always changing, but America never changes.’ There’s this sense that the country is dynamic, but there’s this ongoing throughline…this belief that white people matter more than others.” Glaude appeared on The Daily Show With Trevor Noah to discuss his latest book, Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own. thinks that James Baldwin can still teach America valuable lessons about racial injustice.

Books by eddie glaude jr