When James Baldwin wrote about the Atlanta child murders

Re:When James Baldwin wrote about the Atlanta child murders by keiferski on Friday May 15, 2020 @03:10AM (#23189716)

Baldwin was really a fascinating person. He traveled quite a bit around Europe, too, and wrote some of his most known work in Istanbul, which I always found an interesting juxtaposition to the way he is usually portrayed. I agree with his thought that’s it’s easier to view America from the outside. IIRC Fitzgerald wrote most of Gatsby while in France, which seems to confirm the idea. It’s a shame Baldwin isn’t more well-known.

https://www.theguideistanbul.com/james-baldwin/

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Re:When James Baldwin wrote about the Atlanta child murders by Quequau on Friday May 15, 2020 @07:09AM (#23190812)

It has also been my experience that it’s easier to view America from the outside. Though I find this excruciatingly painful to convey to folks that I know who have never lived any where else.

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Re:When James Baldwin wrote about the Atlanta child murders by dorchadas on Friday May 15, 2020 @11:34AM (#23193364)

I've found this holds true for me as well. My entire view of America shift after I spent only a semester abroad in Ireland, and it was all from being able to sit back and view it from a distance.

I've also found that this holds true for smaller levels as well. My hometown is fairly rural and in a high poverty county, yet people don't want any better. Since I moved out, I realized that's because it's all they've ever known; they don't really realize there is a difference than living there, doing the same things as adults they did as high schoolers, etc. It's just a vicious cycle, as that mindset gets passed on to their kids as well, and fosters quite a bit of anti-intellectualism in the mix (which I see as a teacher there now, though I don't live there).

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Re:When James Baldwin wrote about the Atlanta child murders by acqq on Friday May 15, 2020 @04:06AM (#23189989)

Thanks. This explains a lot:

"The city became his on-and-off home throughout much of the 1960s." "Life was safer and easier: unlike in the US, he didn’t have to worry about being harassed by the police or being refused service at restaurants. “"

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