James Baldwin

This piece was one of nine created for my exhibit Regarding Privilege, on display from September 23rd to November 2nd, 2023.

James Baldwin was an American writer

August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987

This quote is from The Fire Next Time, published in 1964, p. 36.

I considered changing “black” to “Black”, based on current usage. After reading her piece in the New York Times in 2020, Why We’re Capitalizing Black, I wrote to Nancy Coleman about this. Coleman’s opinion was “It’s art, do what you want,” but she also consulted with her copy editor at the Times, who said their policy was to change it to match NYT style. In the end, I decided to stay true to Baldwin’s writing, and left it “black”.

Please contact me if you’re interested in acquiring this piece for your collection.

The text of this piece reads:

White people, who had robbed black people of their liberty and who profited by this theft every hour that they lived had no moral ground on which to stand. They had the judges, the juries, the shotguns, the law – in a word, power. But it was a criminal power, to be feared but not respected.