
“Baldwin’s Nigger” is a 1968 documentary on James Baldwin and Dick Gregory filmed by Horace Ové. One of my favorites, as it is an indictment on western philosophy and enlightenment. The two do a great job explaining civil rights and the history of the ‘American Negro’ in 1968, to a crowd that is largely of Caribbean descent in Great Britain. I’m a big fan of this sort of dialogue because nothing about the experience of people with African descent is linear, we can learn a lot from each-other. Pay attention to Dick Gregory’s portion in the last 10 minutes or so (36:00 – On), it’s one of the more potent sections in my opinion.

“It’s not a racial problem, it’s a problem of whether or not you’re willing to look at your life and be responsible for it and then begin to change it. That great western house I come from is one house. I am one of the children of that house, simply i’m the most despised child of that house.”
- James Baldwin, 1968
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“White is not a color, it’s an attitude. Black is not a color, it’s an attitude. This whole thing we’re talking about is not about color, it’s about attitude.”
- Dick Gregory, 1968