Glaude references Baldwin from his last novel, Just Above My Head: “Responsibility cannot be lost, it can only be abdicated. Rethinking America’s Pastīefore we start over, we must own the past. It allowed him to see these challenging times both for what they were and for what could come of them if we were willing to start over. Glaude shared that Baldwin’s “delicate balance between rage and love” provided him with perspective. This lie provides cover for a “value gap” that threatens our future and our collective soul. This refusal, Glaude contended, allows for the advancement of a lie regarding what this nation is and what it stands for to continue. His dismay stems from America’s refusal to come to grips with a racist past that has perhaps defined what the country is today more than any other identifiable feature. I became curious after listening to interviews in which Professor Glaude shared his disillusionment with the United States. The author compelled me, a white man with ancestral heritage I didn’t earn, to learn more about a lie that our nation has protected for centuries. Recently, I asked some close friends to join me in a book study of the New York Times bestseller Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Professor Eddie Glaude Jr.
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