You Mean It or You Don't: James Baldwin's Radical Challenge

Jamie McGhee · Adam Hollowell

Dec 2022 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Julienne Irons

About this audiobook

After a speech at UMass Amherst on February 28, 1984, James Baldwin was asked by a student: "You said that the liberal façade and being a liberal is not enough. Well, what is? What is necessary?" Baldwin responded, "Commitment. That is what is necessary. You mean it or you don't." Taking up that challenge and drawing from Baldwin's fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and interviews, You Mean It or You Don't will spur today's progressives from conviction to action. It is not enough, authors Hollowell and McGhee urge us, to hold progressive views on racial justice, LGBTQ+ identity, and economic inequality. True and lasting change demands a response to Baldwin's radical challenge for moral commitment. Called to move from dreams of justice to living it out in communities, churches, and neighborhoods, we can show that we truly mean it. Welcome to life with James Baldwin. It is raw and challenging, inspired and embodied, passionate, and fully awake.

About the author

Jamie McGhee is a novelist, playwright, and essayist. For her fiction, she was named a James Baldwin Fellow in Saint-Paul de Vence, France, and a Sacatar Fellow in Itaparica, Brazil. With ties to the eastern US, she is now based in Berlin, Germany.

Adam Hollowell teaches ethics and inequality studies at Duke University, where he directs the Global Inequality Research Initiative at the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.

Julienne Irons loves all things true crime but has a knack for creating fun voices, which makes her a great choice for children's books and adult novels. With training from Tisch School of the Arts and various prestigious acting studios, she can bring any story to life and truly enjoys the work she's so honored to create.