Yup, I think he kind of admired Baldwin but hated him for being a homosexual. Basically Baldwin could have made an exemplary black man but sleeping with white men made him a race traitor and submitting to white men is the ultimate transgression (esp. with regard to Black Nationalism). The language in Soul on ice is really homosocial/-erotic though.

I love the Wilde quote too. It’s so expressive and sounds exactly like how it really was.

I love nonfiction! Because I like feeling like I have a good grip on things, and that the book I’m reading is telling me the Truth, not just the Wikipedia truth. :p But although I like knowing things, I cannot be doing with too much nonfiction at once. My brain gets hungry for stories.

I know! Ick! Well, I know about the idea of raping white women for revenge – what did he say about Baldwin and homosexuality? I assume he was against them?

Indeed? I don’t really know that much about him but everything I know about him is nice.

I didn’t learn about the Black Panthers in school, since we had Canadian History rather than American History, but they sound like a complex and interesting group. Also, your nonfiction reviews always make me wish I read more of the stuff. I mostly know about things because I’ve read fiction that somehow dealt with them, but I have to take that with a grain of salt because authors often wiggle true stories around until they get something that fits their plot. I know nonfiction writers also fudge facts to support their theses, but I figure it’s easier to tell when they’re doing it because they have to provide references and the like. Also, they usually aren’t the only person who’s ever written about the topic, so I can collect contrasting viewpoints from other sources.

I only really learned about the Black Panthers in uni and I think we covered both the violence and their reasons, so both sides, well. Eldridge Cleaver was nuts, I read bits of Soul on Ice for a paper and he had problems! Especially with Baldwin and homosexuality and his idea about raping white women as revenge.