Faggot As Footnote: On James Baldwin, ‘I Am Not Your Negro’, ‘Can I Get A Witness?’ and ‘Moonlight’

by Max S. Gordon

(This essay originally appeared at The New Civil Rights Movement, February 25, 2017)

“People invent categories in order to feel safe. White people invented black people to give white people identity…Straight cats invented faggots so they can sleep with them without becoming faggots themselves.”

— James Baldwin & Nikki Giovanni, A Dialogue (1973)

“Have you ever wished you were queer?” Rufus asked suddenly.

Vivaldo smiled, looking into his glass. “I used to think maybe I was. Hell, I think I even wished I was. But I’m not. So I’m stuck.”

Rufus walked to Vivaldo’s window. “So you been all up and down that street, too.”

“We’ve all been up the same streets. There aren’t a hell of a lot of streets. Only we’re taught to lie so much about so many things, that we hardly know where we are.”

— James Baldwin, Another Country (1962)

“Nothing can be hidden; secrets do not exist.”

— James Baldwin, Just Above My Head (1979)

PART ONE — WITNESS

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