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A review by seeceeread
The Evidence of Things Not Seen by James Baldwin
3.5
💭 "𝘏𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘰𝘪𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘤 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘵𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 sums up Black American history with a terrifying precision, and is the key to our continuing dilemma."
Baldwin broke his self-imposed exile to France to journey to Georgia. He communes with unnamed informants about the spate of missing and murdered Black children that plagues the capital city — as well as the trial of Wayne Williams, officially detailed for the death of two adults, but in court held accountable for the children, as well. We learn a little of Williams' background (lazy, spoiled only child) and his few social connections (fraught, thin) ... and a lot of Baldwin's thoughts on the fragile yet persistent tension of the American project. Where Black children are expendable until their mothers insist on fundraising a search and rescue. Where missing children are an afterthought in the metropolis "too busy to hate" until there's a clear opportunity to exact violence on a Black man, supposedly in their name. Where a Black administration can pretend a "pattern" where none exists only to arbitrarily declare its end (while new children go missing and found, deceased.)
As ever, Baldwin is unflinching in naming what he sees. And what goes unsaid but must be plainly stated. And his exhortations on how we arrived here, if we are to have any hope of a different day. Largely stream-of-consciousness, he skips from one topic to the next with incredulity and disdain, grasping for a redeeming thread in the nation's filthy, limply waving wholecloth. Whatever he's talking about in a given moment, it's easy to find fantastic quotes and excerpts; Baldwin loved language, even if his reality required him to use it as a witness of abyss.
Baldwin broke his self-imposed exile to France to journey to Georgia. He communes with unnamed informants about the spate of missing and murdered Black children that plagues the capital city — as well as the trial of Wayne Williams, officially detailed for the death of two adults, but in court held accountable for the children, as well. We learn a little of Williams' background (lazy, spoiled only child) and his few social connections (fraught, thin) ... and a lot of Baldwin's thoughts on the fragile yet persistent tension of the American project. Where Black children are expendable until their mothers insist on fundraising a search and rescue. Where missing children are an afterthought in the metropolis "too busy to hate" until there's a clear opportunity to exact violence on a Black man, supposedly in their name. Where a Black administration can pretend a "pattern" where none exists only to arbitrarily declare its end (while new children go missing and found, deceased.)
As ever, Baldwin is unflinching in naming what he sees. And what goes unsaid but must be plainly stated. And his exhortations on how we arrived here, if we are to have any hope of a different day. Largely stream-of-consciousness, he skips from one topic to the next with incredulity and disdain, grasping for a redeeming thread in the nation's filthy, limply waving wholecloth. Whatever he's talking about in a given moment, it's easy to find fantastic quotes and excerpts; Baldwin loved language, even if his reality required him to use it as a witness of abyss.