So it is that Baldwin guides us into conversation about race and racism—what it is, how it works, why it exists—as he also directs us into conversation about the America where racism has been endemic throughout history. What he was saying was that the story of Black people in America was, in a very real sense, the story of the nation, and until we were willing to acknowledge that truth, excavate that history, and repent the very great sins of that past, present, and future, we could not hope to make any sort of progress toward the soaring words of the founders, no matter that, as Cavett points
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