Connected With James Baldwin

In a world where we’re all remote, how do we stay connected? James Baldwin set the blueprint years ago and he did it without Zoom.

By: Renn Vara

I’m driving alone down a remote two-lane bumpy highway in Eastern Maine. NPR is fading in and out as I strain to listen to an interview with the author of a new book about James Baldwin. “He was in, but not of, the civil rights movement,” he says attempting to explain the complexity of “Jimmy’s” voice during his time in history.

I find this odd considering how important his voice is right now. Being poor and gay from the streets of Harlem with a high school degree and living mostly in France as an adult, he was misunderstood by both his civil rights compatriots and the wider embattled community.

But now, he’s experiencing a resurgence as we all seek some clarity. Which got me thinking about the relevance of connection, belonging, being understood, and being heard.

James Baldwin has something to teach us right now as we find our way in this COVID-connected world. He obviously calls us out on personal and social truths. He’s fearless in his directness and wisdom. He’s done his homework to understand those who disagree with him so that his questions while piercing are intellectually true.

But there’s more to learn from Baldwin about staying connected:

• Do Your Homework: While we may not be able to move to Paris as he did in his twenties, we can spend the time to get to know ourselves, our world, and those around us. Do our homework versus be victims of our personal history, genetics, or this moment.
• Connection Takes Work: Despite living abroad, Baldwin was able to stay connected to artists, writers, activists, among others. It took effort. We have to do the same. Connection requires time and proximity. Baldwin didn’t have Zoom.
• Bonds Are Built From Fire: Quoting a leader I interviewed this week for a 360, “I don’t really know him because we’ve never had a fight.” James Baldwin wasn’t afraid to fight. Great connections are often made when people work through challenges together. Look for these opportunities. Don’t run from them.
• You Could Be Wrong: Much of Baldwin’s world was wrong about him. It’s taken almost fifty years for some of us to learn that. If only those of his era would have considered they were wrong then. Instead, this generation has to fix the flawed foundation as explained by author Isabel Wilkerson in her latest book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.

This week, my wife and I are bingeing on West Wing. That White House team embodies the basics of connection. Conflict, candor, challenge, and the art of conversation. And above all, respect, inclusion, and reflection. We can’t fix everything in this nutty world but we can fix ourselves.

When I was a young Southern Baptist growing up on the Florida / Alabama border, we were taught the Christian concept of “being in the world but not of it.” It was the ultimate message of disconnection, them versus us. Funny to hear it applied to James Baldwin today.

As I think about this concept and how that author, Eddie S. Glaude Jr, in his book Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and the Urgent Lessons for Our Own, speaks to it on this NPR interview (much easier to hear when you’re not losing signal on a lonesome highway in Maine), I’m reminded of the complexity of connection. Yes, we need to be both “in” the world and “of” it. That’s the investment required to truly be connected.