y where he would remain for the remainder of his life and career-incapable of condoning the injustice imposed by a white society, and, just as incapable of admitting black society had just as much potential for wrongdoing, albeit without have equal means of access as whites to impose it upon others. In actuality, the man empathized with both sides of the Civil Rights equation because he knew there were humans on both sides of the issue. Thus, we begin to glimpse even the tip of the ice-berg of understanding the all-encompassing humanism that James Baldwin promoted regardless of his stage of development as a human being, regardless of his career development, and, irregardless of the voice of those in contrast to his own instincts. James Baldwin was nothing if not self-defined in the face of enormous, even legitimized, pressure to conform. Not because he was a black man. Nor because he was queer. Not because he was a writer who was black and queer. But, because, more than anything else, he knew he was one thing no matter what else-a human being, one who liked to write about being human without regard to pretension yet with all flaws in tow. To do or be less would undermine the human condition as it exists. Mr. Baldwin always, above all else, had the courage not to fall back or rely on such traps of comfort, confusion, or convenience. Instead, he chronicled the human condition accurately and progressively by transcending his own pains and joys, i.e., his own agenda, so all human beings would relate to his story. No one suffered more for their craft, but, no one was rewarded by transcending their own dilemmas eternally more unless we take the myth (as Baldwin would admit) of Christ into account. Read on, and let me have the fantasy a while of portending I can reveal something to you, the reader, of such a human being.
If we hope to gain some measure of insight into the wholeness of identity that would eventually represent ...