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A review by erica_s
The Evidence of Things Not Seen by James Baldwin
4.0
A captivating examination of the social forces affecting the investigation and prosecution of the Atlanta Child Murders of 1979-1981, and the 1982 conviction of Wayne Williams, reported by the acclaimed essayist, novelist, & playwright James Baldwin.
Looking at the actual crimes and the prosecution, Baldwin focuses on the fact that although Williams was tried and found guilty only for the murder of 2 adults at the time, he was "blamed" for 26 other murders of the "same pattern," even though the rest of the victims were children. The investigation and prosecution of the murders of those children were abandoned once Williams was found guilty.
I picked up this book in part because in 2019, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced that officials would re-test evidence from the time. Another point Baldwin makes is that the testing of the evidence was shoddy & inconclusive, and expert testimony left out too much information - so the Atlanta Mayor should do what can be done, for the families, if nothing else.
Although Baldwin didn't know at the time that 3 people (who were young boys in 1980) gave statements later that Williams had solicited them, there was nevertheless plenty of reason to be suspicious and critical of how the case played out. For me, and for many people at the time and now, all of the details of the cases are difficult to hear, terribly sad, and totally frightening. Reading about the murders on Wikipedia is distressing for anyone. I don't know if Wayne Williams committed all the murders or not.
What is very clear is that Baldwin's description of the social forces is accurate, incisive, and damning - almost equally today as then. Several times in his discourse, he takes side-trips to other incidents, crimes, historical trends, etc., to illustrate the actual "pattern" and why - no matter the outcome of this trial or its re-trial - everyone should be asking themselves what is happening in our country.
The most significant points (for me) are stated so eloquently, I would like to quote Baldwin exactly:
I *feel* this so much right now - watching the skyrocketing disparity of wealth, and the cruel exploitation of emergency workers, teachers, and all service workers during the pandemic, which together served to exacerbate and lay bare the grotesque racial inequity that seems to be embedded in every law, bureaucratic procedure, and civic decision-making process.
Although in 1985, we all rightly feared a possible nuclear annihilation that seemed less likely every year since then, this statement is absolutely inarguable today. It's staggeringly true and irrefutable.
In most of the text, Baldwin is laying out a description of society (American & European) so warped by racism that people (leaders & people who might identify with the dominant culture, i.e. White people) are unable to burrow through the foundational lies and have lost any right to claim "moral authority" over anyone. But many of his examples, and his most clear and persuasive points (like the quotes above) seemed to me to be describing the root problems that caused the racism.
It left me wishing I could talk to Baldwin and find out more about what he guessed had twisted many human beings to be viciously profit-driven, greedy, and destructive, and many other human beings, less inclined to viciousness, to nevertheless enable them.
One other quote that really struck close to me;
This could easily describe me - the one hoping to salvage something; my good job serving the public (I'm a librarian), my cozy house, all the fresh fruits & vegetables I care to eat, fresh running hot & cold water, and all the various social services & infrastructure that I rely on. And I believe it also describes my two adult children, who seem to believe (at ages 24 & 27) that the world may implode, explode, melt, or overflow before they are my age - and therefore will never bring children into the world, and openly scoff at anyone who gets married or has children. It's not that my (privileged) children have nothing to lose right now, it's that they seem to believe that IF they worked to get anything more, it would only anchor them to a sinking ship, and they are ditching any entrapments as quickly as they float by them. They pursue their interests, find joy where it comes, but dedicate themselves wholly and completely to volunteer, mutual aide, and environmental or community service projects.
I am amazed by my children's generosity with their life's energy. I am totally self-centered in comparison. I have often thought of our differences, and whose tactics might be more likely to succeed in steering the world away from disaster (like a tiny NASA rocket hitting an asteroid, which happened last week). But in what way could I understand the "confrontation" between me (progressive liberal, anti-racist voter) and my children (anti-racist, anti-capitalist, nearly-anarchist) to be the "root and branch of the dilemma of this White Republic"? Does this mean every time I persuade them to accept a gift (fair trade, environmentally responsible) from me, I am tricking them into becoming enmeshed in an irreparably racist, exploitative, inhumane society? The peculiarity is that my children do not waste their time confronting me.
If my family is a micro-example of this confrontation, please tell the ghost of Baldwin there might be some hope - these white children are prepared to let go and have already let go in some ways of the comforts of their privilege. They dress as if they lived in poverty, their close friend groups include desperate people (homelessness, drug addiction), and they eschew almost all pop-culture participation. Could this "confrontation" be worth using as a model? If we focus on the "splendor of the human connection" as Baldwin suggested, as motivation to love our children & neighbors & fellow inhabitants of our city, could that be our path forward? I remember thinking the same thing while reading [b:The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together|53231851|The Sum of Us What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together|Heather McGhee|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1606321459l/53231851._SY75_.jpg|80581341].
Baldwin looks with care at the families of the murdered children, and observes that the accused murderer and all the victims were all living in poverty or near-poverty. But this is no more of an explanation for why Williams (if he did murder children) got to be so twisted, than for why White capitalists got to be so twisted. The victims' poverty is indisputably why the City Administrators felt justified in abandoning their investigation - if integration had not decimated the Black middle class of Atlanta, as Baldwin describes, there may have been the social infrastructure to keep pressure on the City. Baldwin lays this out, but it takes several passages to piece it together - interrupted by asides, historical examples, etc. - but the point is that it's not just cash that matters, but influence, and Black influence in Atlanta and other cities (Baldwin posits) was undermined as soon as the nation chose the tactic of integration rather than desegregation.
In any case, in the loving appreciation of the children who died during that vicious murder spree, all the parents who try to raise & protect their children anywhere, and all the elders who try to guide those (sacred) children of the community (described better on page 17), Baldwin shows his loving kindness and larger spiritual sense;
The last dozen pages of the book left me confused and exhausted, but there is so much here that is clear and thought-provoking. If you have some days to ponder these issues, it's worth sifting through.
Looking at the actual crimes and the prosecution, Baldwin focuses on the fact that although Williams was tried and found guilty only for the murder of 2 adults at the time, he was "blamed" for 26 other murders of the "same pattern," even though the rest of the victims were children. The investigation and prosecution of the murders of those children were abandoned once Williams was found guilty.
I picked up this book in part because in 2019, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced that officials would re-test evidence from the time. Another point Baldwin makes is that the testing of the evidence was shoddy & inconclusive, and expert testimony left out too much information - so the Atlanta Mayor should do what can be done, for the families, if nothing else.
Although Baldwin didn't know at the time that 3 people (who were young boys in 1980) gave statements later that Williams had solicited them, there was nevertheless plenty of reason to be suspicious and critical of how the case played out. For me, and for many people at the time and now, all of the details of the cases are difficult to hear, terribly sad, and totally frightening. Reading about the murders on Wikipedia is distressing for anyone. I don't know if Wayne Williams committed all the murders or not.
What is very clear is that Baldwin's description of the social forces is accurate, incisive, and damning - almost equally today as then. Several times in his discourse, he takes side-trips to other incidents, crimes, historical trends, etc., to illustrate the actual "pattern" and why - no matter the outcome of this trial or its re-trial - everyone should be asking themselves what is happening in our country.
The most significant points (for me) are stated so eloquently, I would like to quote Baldwin exactly:
"Man cannot live by profit alone. But the situation of Black Americans has been created and is dictated by this motive, and there is no other single detail of American life more revelatory of Americans and absolutely no level of American life it does not corrupt." (p. 31)
I *feel* this so much right now - watching the skyrocketing disparity of wealth, and the cruel exploitation of emergency workers, teachers, and all service workers during the pandemic, which together served to exacerbate and lay bare the grotesque racial inequity that seems to be embedded in every law, bureaucratic procedure, and civic decision-making process.
"This civilization has proven capable of destroying people rather than hear them, destroying continents rather than share them, and are equally capable, for the same reason, of destroying all life on this planet." (p.91)
Although in 1985, we all rightly feared a possible nuclear annihilation that seemed less likely every year since then, this statement is absolutely inarguable today. It's staggeringly true and irrefutable.
In most of the text, Baldwin is laying out a description of society (American & European) so warped by racism that people (leaders & people who might identify with the dominant culture, i.e. White people) are unable to burrow through the foundational lies and have lost any right to claim "moral authority" over anyone. But many of his examples, and his most clear and persuasive points (like the quotes above) seemed to me to be describing the root problems that caused the racism.
It left me wishing I could talk to Baldwin and find out more about what he guessed had twisted many human beings to be viciously profit-driven, greedy, and destructive, and many other human beings, less inclined to viciousness, to nevertheless enable them.
One other quote that really struck close to me;
"The confrontation between that person who must believe that there is something to be salvaged and that person who has been compelled to act on the assumption that he has nothing to lose, is the root and branch of the dilemma of this White Republic.
This could easily describe me - the one hoping to salvage something; my good job serving the public (I'm a librarian), my cozy house, all the fresh fruits & vegetables I care to eat, fresh running hot & cold water, and all the various social services & infrastructure that I rely on. And I believe it also describes my two adult children, who seem to believe (at ages 24 & 27) that the world may implode, explode, melt, or overflow before they are my age - and therefore will never bring children into the world, and openly scoff at anyone who gets married or has children. It's not that my (privileged) children have nothing to lose right now, it's that they seem to believe that IF they worked to get anything more, it would only anchor them to a sinking ship, and they are ditching any entrapments as quickly as they float by them. They pursue their interests, find joy where it comes, but dedicate themselves wholly and completely to volunteer, mutual aide, and environmental or community service projects.
I am amazed by my children's generosity with their life's energy. I am totally self-centered in comparison. I have often thought of our differences, and whose tactics might be more likely to succeed in steering the world away from disaster (like a tiny NASA rocket hitting an asteroid, which happened last week). But in what way could I understand the "confrontation" between me (progressive liberal, anti-racist voter) and my children (anti-racist, anti-capitalist, nearly-anarchist) to be the "root and branch of the dilemma of this White Republic"? Does this mean every time I persuade them to accept a gift (fair trade, environmentally responsible) from me, I am tricking them into becoming enmeshed in an irreparably racist, exploitative, inhumane society? The peculiarity is that my children do not waste their time confronting me.
If my family is a micro-example of this confrontation, please tell the ghost of Baldwin there might be some hope - these white children are prepared to let go and have already let go in some ways of the comforts of their privilege. They dress as if they lived in poverty, their close friend groups include desperate people (homelessness, drug addiction), and they eschew almost all pop-culture participation. Could this "confrontation" be worth using as a model? If we focus on the "splendor of the human connection" as Baldwin suggested, as motivation to love our children & neighbors & fellow inhabitants of our city, could that be our path forward? I remember thinking the same thing while reading [b:The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together|53231851|The Sum of Us What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together|Heather McGhee|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1606321459l/53231851._SY75_.jpg|80581341].
Baldwin looks with care at the families of the murdered children, and observes that the accused murderer and all the victims were all living in poverty or near-poverty. But this is no more of an explanation for why Williams (if he did murder children) got to be so twisted, than for why White capitalists got to be so twisted. The victims' poverty is indisputably why the City Administrators felt justified in abandoning their investigation - if integration had not decimated the Black middle class of Atlanta, as Baldwin describes, there may have been the social infrastructure to keep pressure on the City. Baldwin lays this out, but it takes several passages to piece it together - interrupted by asides, historical examples, etc. - but the point is that it's not just cash that matters, but influence, and Black influence in Atlanta and other cities (Baldwin posits) was undermined as soon as the nation chose the tactic of integration rather than desegregation.
In any case, in the loving appreciation of the children who died during that vicious murder spree, all the parents who try to raise & protect their children anywhere, and all the elders who try to guide those (sacred) children of the community (described better on page 17), Baldwin shows his loving kindness and larger spiritual sense;
"...it is precisely our irreplaceability, uniqueness, mortality, that is the splendor of the human connection. That isolation and death are certain and universal clarifies our responsibility." (. 52)
The last dozen pages of the book left me confused and exhausted, but there is so much here that is clear and thought-provoking. If you have some days to ponder these issues, it's worth sifting through.