{"id":687,"date":"2021-05-02T22:46:26","date_gmt":"2021-05-03T02:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/?p=687"},"modified":"2021-05-02T22:46:27","modified_gmt":"2021-05-03T02:46:27","slug":"when-our-heroes-have-flaws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/2021\/05\/02\/when-our-heroes-have-flaws\/","title":{"rendered":"When Our Heroes Have Flaws"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Many of us were disappointed in James Baldwin when we read his conversation with Audre Lorde, \u201cRevolutionary Hope.\u201d Throughout their discussion, Lorde continuously mentions the plight of Black women, saying, \u201cThe cops are killing the men and the men are killing the women. I\u2019m talking about rape. I\u2019m talking about murder.\u201d She wants Baldwin to acknowledge the physical violence perpetrated on Black women. He does acknowledge it, but he also excuses it. Baldwin replies that for Black men who beat up women, \u201cit\u2019s his responsibility<\/em>, but it\u2019s not his fault<\/em>.\u201d Baldwin is correct \u2013 racism in American society absolutely contributed to this trend, but then Baldwin adds, \u201cIt hurts me at least as much as it hurts you.\u201d Here is where a female reader might become frustrated. How could it hurt him as much? The Black woman being physically beaten at home is certainly suffering more than the man beating her. Why doesn\u2019t Baldwin understand that? Is he not listening to Lorde? She agrees with him that they are both suffering, but she wants him to recognize the unique harm faced by someone who is both Black and a woman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this discussion, however, it seems that Baldwin never reaches that point. He persistently tries to recenter the conversation around Black men, telling Lorde that \u201cin this republic the only real crime is to be a Black man.\u201d When she argues that being Black is the crime, not being a Black man, he maintains his position. After they go back and forth about the challenges faced by Black men and women, Baldwin eventually gives one or two word answers. He never affirms what Lorde tells him and it does not seem that they even agree by the end. Lorde backs him into a corner and he seemingly gives up, but he never admits his misunderstanding. While Baldwin is a brilliant participant in the civil rights movement, he fails in this exchange to stick up for women. I was reminded of Baldwin\u2019s flaws as a social critic while watching MLK\/FBI<\/em> this weekend. Martin Luther King is an imperfect figure as well. While his contribution to the civil rights movement is undeniable, he was not a faithful husband. Despite working as a pastor and using his moral code as the foundation for many of his arguments, he frequently broke those moral rules. This information is undoubtedly disappointing, but it doesn\u2019t unwrite the work he\u2019s done for Black Americans, just as Baldwin\u2019s unsatisfactory responses to Lorde do not discredit his achievements as a social critic. It is unfair to hold our heroes on great pedestals and expect them to be flawless, as many do with King especially. Instead, we must see them as human.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Many of us were disappointed in James Baldwin when we read his conversation with Audre Lorde, \u201cRevolutionary Hope.\u201d Throughout their discussion, Lorde continuously mentions the plight of Black women, saying, \u201cThe cops are killing the men and the men are killing the women. I\u2019m talking about rape. I\u2019m talking about murder.\u201d She wants Baldwin to … Continue reading When Our Heroes Have Flaws<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3914,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[471414],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-native-son"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3914"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":688,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687\/revisions\/688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}