"Not everything is lost. Responsibility cannot be lost — it can only be abdicated. If one refuses abdication, one begins again." — James Baldwin
I was honored to interview the renowned scholar Dr. Eddie Glaude Jr. for the second session of the National Council of Elders webinar series I co-host, named for Dr. Glaude's 2020 book, Begin Again.
Dr. Glaude, the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor at Princeton University, and I are in conversation about the current cultural and political moment in the United States. We reflect on some of the themes of Begin Again. Glaude reflects on James Baldwin's life and his wrestling with the painful truth of the United States, revealed through the assassinations of the 1960s and the systematic dismantling of the Civil Rights Movement. Glaude places the betrayal expressed through those assassinations and the subsequent political campaigns alongside the betrayal experienced by those who engaged in the Movement for Black Lives after the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown, the repeated police killings that have not abated, and all the successful political campaigns that have emerged in the years since.
I want to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Glaude and to the National Council of Elders for the opportunity.