James Baldwin’s work has been essential to readers for generations, and it’s time to make it so all American kids get a taste of this great American author.
A Twitter thread caught the Citizen Ed staff’s eye today because it explains perfectly why today’s students of color should be assigned Baldwin’s writing—rather than getting stuck waiting until adulthood to experience his work, like thread author Brian Kennedy II.
“Please try to remember that what they believe, as well as what they do and cause you to endure, does not testify to your inferiority but to their inhumanity and fear,” Kennedy quoted Baldwin.
“There is no reason for you to try to become like white people and there is no basis whatever for their impertinent assumption that *they* must accept *you*. The really terrible thing, old buddle, is that *you* must accept *them*. They are, in effect, still trapped in a history which they do not understand; and until they understand it, they can not be released from it.”
Kennedy gets it.
