--- description: In a clip from the documentary "I Am Not Your Negro," James Baldwin explains a racist double standard on "The Dick Cavett Show." title: Watch James Baldwin in a New Clip From 'I Am Not Your Negro' image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt816c93a007fef16b/6988b853cf40a8581fc464c1/james-baldwin.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Watch James Baldwin Talk Race in America in a Clip From _I Am Not Your Negro_  by [Eliza Berman](/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Feb 3, 2017 6:00 PM CUT  by [Eliza Berman](/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Feb 3, 2017 6:00 PM CUT [James Baldwin’s](http://time.com/4565518/donald-trump-value-gap/ "undefined") words have been cropping up with growing frequency in recent days: In movie award acceptance [speeches](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-nyfcc-robert-klein-la-la-land-20170104-story.html "undefined") and on posters at [anti-Trump protests](http://www.mtv.com/news/2973842/in-trumps-america-activist-librarians-who-wont-be-shushed/ "undefined"). In [discussions](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nina-turner-quotes-james-baldwin-to-sum-up-the-anger-among-black-protesters%5Fus%5F57e420d1e4b0e28b2b52cf14 "undefined") on TV news programs and even the prelude to [Madonna’s remarks](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/01/20/madonna-on-the-trump-inauguration-i-do-believe-that-trump-was-elected-for-a-reason.html "undefined") at the Women’s March on Washington. And in tweet after tweet after tweet punctuated with the hashtag #blacklivesmatter. It has been almost 30 years since the writer and social critic died, and though his words have never lost their potency, they have, of late, increasingly found their way into the airwaves (and twitter-waves) of mainstream popular culture. As a new generation discovers his work and older generations seek to revisit it, the timing couldn’t be more auspicious for director Raoul Peck’s new documentary _I Am Not Your Negro_, which uses Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript about the lives and assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. as a launchpad for a conversation about race in contemporary America. The documentary, which hits theaters Feb. 3, had a qualifying run in 2016 that made it eligible for an [Academy Award nomination](http://time.com/4635815/2017-oscars-nominations-list/ "undefined"), which it received on Jan. 24\. The category this year is rich with films that explore racism from different angles: Ava DuVernay’s _13th_ draws a straight line from slavery to mass incarceration and Ezra Edelman’s _O.J.: Made in America_ uses the life of O.J. Simpson as a lens through which to explore race, celebrity and sport. In _I Am Not Your Negro_, Samuel L. Jackson breathes life into the never published _Remember This House_, of which Baldwin had completed only 30 pages before he died. Peck places archival footage side by side with contemporary footage—Birmingham in the ‘60s, Ferguson in 2015—illustrating, though it’s already clear to so many, why the last 50 years don’t seem to have made Baldwin’s perspective any less necessary or relevant. In the exclusive clip above, Baldwin appears on an episode of _The Dick Cavett Show_ in 1968 to explain a damaging double standard of perception. When a white person picks up a weapon and demands freedom, he says, white people are quick to applaud him. When a black person does the same, he continues, white people don’t hesitate to criminalize him. Days after a national address on [Black History Month](http://time.com/4657862/donald-trump-black-history-month/ "undefined"), it wouldn’t be an overstatement to call Peck’s film required viewing. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4656492/james-baldwin-i-am-not-your-negro-documentary/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4656492/james-baldwin-i-am-not-your-negro-documentary/"},"headline":"Watch James Baldwin Talk Race in America in a Clip From I Am Not Your Negro","datePublished":"2017-02-03T18:00:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-06-24T06:56:54.073Z","description":"Baldwin's work feels more timely than ever","url":"https://time.com/4656492/james-baldwin-i-am-not-your-negro-documentary/","keywords":["movies","Oscars","Academy Awards","documentaries","awards season"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt816c93a007fef16b/6988b853cf40a8581fc464c1/james-baldwin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliza Berman","jobTitle":"Berman is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt816c93a007fef16b/6988b853cf40a8581fc464c1/james-baldwin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"James Baldwin poses at his home in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, southern France, on November 6, 1979.","caption":"James Baldwin poses at his home in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, southern France, on November 6, 1979.","creditText":"RALPH GATTI—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4656492/james-baldwin-i-am-not-your-negro-documentary/","name":"Watch James Baldwin Talk Race in America in a Clip From I Am Not Your Negro"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"This Video Is No Longer Available","description":"Baldwin's work feels more timely than ever","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/fKodeUO6/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-06-23T15:00:44.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fKodeUO6.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4656492/james-baldwin-i-am-not-your-negro-documentary/","duration":"PT10S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4656492/james-baldwin-i-am-not-your-negro-documentary/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```