This 3 minute clip of James Baldwin from a documentary aired on television in early 1969 explaining why “black people are in the streets” remains frustratingly relevant. As Baldwin explains, what was happening then had to do with “the lives they are forced to lead in this country. And they’re forced to lead these lives by the indifference, and the apathy, and a certain kind of ignorance, a very willful ignorance, on the part of their co-citizens.” This was recorded in 1968. It’s been 52 years. History is repeating itself because white America has continued to remain “willfully ignorant.” As Baldwin rightly stated, “we will either live here together or we will die here together. I am telling you, time is telling you, you will either listen or you will perish.”
