July 17, 1971 (page 14 of 24).

‘Weekend’

‘Harlem I find it everywhere: Ray Connolly talking to James Baldwin’.

JB interview with Michael Connolly.

Interview to promote A Rap on Race. Connolly mentions David Baldwin being present and writes: ‘I was the last of a series of press interviews which he gave this week’.

Quote from JB: “I find Harlem everywhere. Here in London if you like”.

In response to a question from Connolly on why he lives in France, JB responds: “The French left me along which was what I needed. I wanted to be able to make it or not. The English are like Americans. And that may become truer than you think”.

JB continues: “I am not talking about racism. The French are equally as racist as the English. But you have a different attitude towards your own flesh. It’s part of your puritanism. That’s what makes you so problematical.”

JB quote: “The French haven’t got the same sort of paranoia that you have. If I’m walking down the street in London with a white girl there’s a certain reaction from your, shall we say, working class. I wouldn’t get the same reaction in France from their working class. The Frenchman assumes that no one can take his woman away from him. But you assume that I’ve only got to beckon and she’ll come running to my bed. That’s your madness, not mind. And it’s true of all of you. I don’t know why. That’s a question you must answer.”