Baldwin's Harlem by Herb Boyd

Author:Herb Boyd
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 2008-04-08T04:00:00+00:00

For Baldwin and Mead, there were moments when they vehemently disagreed about Christians and Jews. Baldwin had made the point, as he often did, that the Jews seldom owned the buildings where they picked up the rent. Mead challenged this, insisting that there were times when the Jews did own the buildings. A portion of their exchange follows:

Baldwin: Well, that’s what I meant when I said the Jews were still doing the Christians’ dirty work. For example, in Harlem, the man who owns the building in which you live–

Mead: You know, this isn’t true in the United States anymore.

Baldwin: It’s true.

Mead: Oh, fiddlesticks!

Baldwin: No, Margaret, I was there.

Mead: Look, the Jews owned it.

Baldwin: The Jew was the landlord, but the Christian owned the land; the Christian owned the building.

Mead: Sometimes and sometimes not.

Baldwin: The man who owned the building–

Mead: It may have been Trinity Church, I know, but I–

Baldwin: Precisely. The man who owned the building did not arrive to collect the rent. The Jew was the middleman.

Mead: Or Columbia University. Or Syrians.

Baldwin: It doesn’t make any difference.

Mead: Wait. Wait. It does make a difference. These are the facts that make a difference.

Baldwin: In our case it was the Jew.

Mead: Yep, I know, but you said–

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