Podcast
The Bulwark Podcast
The author referenced a quote from James Baldwin in which Baldwin discusses the need to 'wash our faces blank' to remove guilt and fit into existing social spaces. This was compared to the need to sometimes 'break down the door' to enter these spaces, bringing the fullness of one's identity into the room.
Baldwin has this wonderful line in Many Thousands Gone.
— Episode: Eddie Glaude Jr.: Biden Needs to Thread...
Episode: Eddie Glaude Jr.: Biden Needs to Thread the Needle
The author referenced a quote from James Baldwin in which Baldwin discusses the need to 'wash our faces blank' to remove guilt and fit into existing social spaces. This was compared to the need to sometimes 'break down the door' to enter these spaces, bringing the fullness of one's identity into the room.
Baldwin has this wonderful line in Many Thousands Gone.
He says, and I'm paraphrasing him here.
He says, oftentimes we have to wash our faces blank in order to wash away your guilt.
That the precondition for my entree into your spaces is that I have to leave the particularity of who I am at the door.
That's the only way I can get in.