It is probably safe to assume that we are all reeling from the news of the weekend, the mass murder inflicted on innocent people by young white men with automatic weapons. As I write this we know that the El Paso shooter was a White supremacist; not much is published this early Sunday morning on the second killer. What we do know is that incitement of hatred from the highest positions in government leads to action, that the availability of guns increases the carnage and that money in politics prevents even the smallest attempts at combating domestic terrorism.

I will offer portraits of people this week who are or were strong under siege of a society that exploits them, excludes them, hates them to the point of violence. And who better to start with than James Baldwin, who would have been 95 years old on August 2nd, had he not succumbed early to cancer. May he rest in power.

Lots of people posted in his honor, citing some of the more familiar words of wisdom he had to offer. I want us to look, though, at an unflinching analysis of racism, painful as it may be for those of us who are White.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0L5fciA6AU

An article in the New Republic 2 years ago had a succinct summary of Baldwin’s evolution and his literary output in the context of a review of a documentary about him, I am not your Negro, that explores the continuing perils America faces from institutionalized racism. Here is the article.

The film can be watched on Amazon Prime, I believe, or here for free if you have your library card at hand.

And here is an essay by him from 1966 – plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.

It is not as if we had no warnings of right-wing violence. But just as the government is not interested in protecting us from election interference by external forces, it is not interested in protecting us from domestic terrorism. Details here from 2 years back already, by Daryl Johnson a former senior analyst for domestic terrorism at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Even the simplest measure, curbing access to guns, is blocked by Republicans. The House, among other attempts, sent McConnell a bill requiring universal background checks and a bill that closes the Charleston loophole. But he refuses to bring it up for a vote. Profit rules.

Texas’ Governor Greg Abbott: (Oct 28, 2015) I’m EMBARRASSED: Texas #2 in nation for new gun purchases, behind CALIFORNIA. Let’s pick up the pace Texans. @NRA

James Baldwin: “It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.”

I fear, we have to swap ignorance for racism.

Photographs for today are from the streets of Paris some years ago, where Baldwin fled to and where he died.

Here is a poem by Baldwin set to music by Renn Lee. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU6yT_udQm8