Reimagining The James Baldwin And William F. Buckley Debate
In 1965, the two intellectuals debated whether the American dream "is at the expense of the American Negro." The Atlantic's David Frum and Harvard's Khalil Muhammad are now revisiting the idea.
In February 1965, two of America's most towering public intellectuals faced off at the University of Cambridge in England. They were there to debate the proposition: "The American Dream is at the expense of the American Negro."
Novelist and essayist James Baldwin argued in favor. He did so by pointing to the experience of the Black man in America. He said the legacy of slavery and white supremacy had in effect "destroy[ed] his sense of reality." Black fathers have no authority
