J. Pharoah Doss: Cherry-picking James Baldwin on his centennial

The prolific black writer James Baldwin was born on August 2, 1924, and would have turned 100 at the beginning of this month. Numerous publications commemorated Baldwin’s centennial and literary achievements. Baldwin died in 1987. By the turn of the century, literary enthusiasts held Baldwin in high regard, but the general public knew little about him. That changed in 2015, when Ta-Nehisi Coates published Between the World and Me. Coates’ work was inspired by James Baldwin’s letter to his nephew from his well-known 1963 essay collection, The Fire Next Time. After Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison dubbed Coates the “next James Baldwin,” there was fresh interest in Baldwin in popular culture. Because the renewed interest in Baldwin coincided with the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, which challenged White supremacy, the new Baldwin fans were mainly interested in Baldwin’s commentary on racism in America. These new Baldwin fans cherry-picked Baldwin quotes to reinforce their preexisting beliefs about White racism, but they did not sift through Baldwin’s canon to locate concepts that challenged their own views on other issues. For example, Oprah Winfrey chose Jeanine Cummins’ novel American Dirt for her 2020 book club. Winfrey commented, “Cummins’ accomplished a remarkable...