Filmmaker and documentarian Ken Burns gave an eloquent and poignant commencement speech at Brandeis University in May 2024, at which he quoted James Baldwin…
“In a filmed interview I conducted with the writer James Baldwin, more than 40years ago, he said, “No one was ever born who agreed to be a slave, who accepted it. That is, slavery is a condition imposed from without. Of course, the moment I say that,” Baldwin continued, “I realize that multitudes and multitudes of people for various reasons of their own enslave themselves every hour of every day to this or that doctrine, this or that delusion of safety, this or that lie.
Anti-Semites, for example,” he went on, “are slaves to a delusion. People who hate Negroes are slaves. People who love money are slaves. We are living in a universe really of willing slaves, which makes the concept of liberty and the concept of freedom so dangerous,” he finished. Baldwin is making a profoundly
psychological and even spiritual statement, not just a political or racial or social one. He knew, just as Lincoln knew, that the enemy is often us. We continue to shackle ourselves with chains we mistakenly think is freedom.”
This week and this holiday beg us to wonder, what psychological constriction does each of us impose on ourselves, and each other that we wish to relinquish or relieve? And how do we strive and challenge ourselves toward this personal mission?
The question here posed is too important and delicate for one-size-fits-all recommendations. As masterfully articulated by Burns and Baldwin, we all suffer under the weight of our own biases—what we expect of ourselves, and how we see others. And so, on this holiday, we strive to simply do better.
