I'm looking at some of the twitter responses to a basic claim I made about the interaction of structural racism and covid-19 on @sruhle show. The vitriol made me think of something I wrote in my new book, _Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own_

"Baldwin came to understand that there were some white people in America who refused to give up their commitments to the value gap. For him, we could not predicate our politics on changing their minds and souls. They had to do that for themselves." 2/

"In our after times, our task, then, is not to save Trump voters--it isn't to convince them to give up their views that white people ought to matter more than others. Our task is to build a world where such a view has not place or quarter to breathe." 3/

"I am aware that this is a radical, some may even say, dangerous claim. It amounts to 'throwing away' a large portion of the country, many of whom are willing to defend their positions with violence." 4/

"But we cannot give in to these people. We know what the result will be, and I cannot watch another generation of black children [our children] bear the burden of that choice." 5/