A Letter To My Niece

Inspired by James Baldwin’s, “A Letter To My Nephew.”

Dear Sinclair,

About 60 years ago, one of my favorite writers wrote a letter to his nephew, with whom he shares the same name, James Baldwin. This piece was published on the 100th anniversary of Juneteenth. A celebration our ancestors created to commemorate their exit from American Slavery.

The thing is, it took Baldwin five tries to finish it.

And little niece, as I type on my iMac, I must confess this draft began when you were half your age. So I’m facing this dilemma not because I don’t know what to say, but because I don’t know what I should say.

For Baldwin, it was difficult to logically explain to young James why he would face certain obstacles because of his skin color. But you see, Baldwin didn’t focus the letter solely on American racism. He instead expounded on the fact that his nephew possessed the choice on “how to handle” it.

Baldwin explained, “It will be hard, but you come from sturdy peasant stock, men who picked cotton, dammed rivers, built railroads, and in the teeth of the most terrifying odds, achieved an unassailable and monumental dignity.” He continued, “You come from a long line of great poets, some of the greatest poets since Homer. One of them said, “The very time I thought I was lost, my…