I Am Not Your Negro

by James Baldwin

I am fascinated by the movement on and off the screen. I am about seven. I am with my mother, or my aunt. The movie is Dance, Fools, Dance. I was aware that Joan Crawford was a white lady. Yet, I remember being sent to the store sometime later, and a colored woman, who, to me, looked exactly like Joan Crawford, was buying something. She was incredibly beautiful…. She looked down at me with so beautiful a smile that I was not even embarrassed. Which was rare for me.

Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.