Tag Archives: James Baldwin

RKS Literature: What to Expect at the French Frontier (James Baldwin)

“The man at the frontier has cigarette ashes all up and down his uniform, and a cigarette is established between his lips. He has not the remotest interest in the voyager, or his passport. Sometimes he forces himself to squint at both. Sometimes he looks at the baggage, sometimes not. Sometimes he stamps the passport;Continue reading “RKS Literature: What to Expect at the French Frontier (James Baldwin)”

RKS Literature: The Brutally Manufactured Lola San-Marquand (James Baldwin)

“I never knew her to dress in any other way. She must have had hundreds of black dresses and scarves-though-in fact, a black and impetuous toque sometimes did duty for the scarf, This, however, was mainly on opening nights. She impressed me-she impresses me still-as one of the most curious, most loving, devious, ruthless, andContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Brutally Manufactured Lola San-Marquand (James Baldwin)”

RKS Literature: White Police: Black Men (James Baldwin)

“Because I’m black and they paid to beat on black asses. But, with a kid your size, they just might get into trouble. So they let us go. They knew you weren’t nothing but a kid. They knew it. But they didn’t care. All black people are shit to them. You remember that. You blackContinue reading “RKS Literature: White Police: Black Men (James Baldwin)”

RKS Literature: Eyes Upon Me (James Baldwin)

“These were the eyes of children stronger than me, who would steal my movie money; these eyes were the eyes of white cops, whom I feared, whom I hated with a literally murderous hatred; these eyes were the eyes of old folks who thought I was a sissy and who might wonder why I wasContinue reading “RKS Literature: Eyes Upon Me (James Baldwin)”

RKS Literature: Loving the Helpless Younger Brother (James Baldwin)

“I think it may be easier to love the really helpless younger brother because he cannot enter into competition with one’s own ground, or on any ground at all, and can never question one’s role, or jeopardize one’s authority. In my own case, certainly, it did not occur to me until much later-to compete withContinue reading “RKS Literature: Loving the Helpless Younger Brother (James Baldwin)”

RKS Literature: The World Will Never Be White Again (James Baldwin)

“One of the things that distinguishes Americans from other people is that no other people have ever been so deeply involved in the lives of black men, and vice versa. This fact faced, with all its implications, it can be seen that the history of the American Negro problem is not merely shameful, it isContinue reading “RKS Literature: The World Will Never Be White Again (James Baldwin)”

RKS Literature: Playing the Poverty Game in Paris (James Baldwin)

“In those days in Paris, though I floated, so to speak, on a sea of acquaintances. I knew almost no one. Many people were eliminated from my orbit by virtue of the fact that they had more money than I did which placed me, in my own eyes, in the humiliating role of a freeContinue reading “RKS Literature: Playing the Poverty Game in Paris (James Baldwin)”

RKS Literature: Playing the Poverty Game in Paris (James Baldwin)

“In those days in Paris, though I floated, so to speak, on a sea of acquaintances. I knew almost no one. Many people were eliminated from my orbit by virtue of the fact that they had more money than I did which placed me, in my own eyes, in the humiliating role of a freeContinue reading “RKS Literature: Playing the Poverty Game in Paris (James Baldwin)”

RKS Literature: The American Bohemian in Paris (James Baldwin)

“They are charmed by the reflection that Paris is more than a thousand years old, but it escapes them that the Parisian has been in the making just about that long, and does not, therefore, become Parisian by a Parisian address. This little band of bohemians, as grimly single-minded as any evangelical sect, illustrate, byContinue reading “RKS Literature: The American Bohemian in Paris (James Baldwin)”

RKS Literature: The Splendid Parisian Air (James Baldwin)

“…it is perfectly possible to be enamoured of Paris while remaining totally indifferent, or even hostile to the French. And this is made possible by the one person in Paris whom the legend seems least not to affect, who is not living it all, that is, the Parisian himself. Him with his impenetrable politesse, andContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Splendid Parisian Air (James Baldwin)”