How Hollywood BROKE James Baldwin (and the forgotten Malcolm X screenplay)

It's time to talk about why James Baldwin probably would not like the contemporary forthcoming biopic by Billy Porter about his life.
In the late 1960s, James Baldwin was hired to write a screenplay about the life of Malcolm X, a friend and comrade. What did this experience and the assassination of MLK Jr teach James Baldwin about Hollywood and capitalism? 
I explore Baldwin's deep connection to Malcolm X and the profound impact of their friendship on Baldwin's life and work. Follow Baldwin's journey as he navigates the daunting task of translating Malcolm X's story onto the screen, all while coping with the mental strain exacerbated by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
#jamesbaldwin #malcolmx #billyporter
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#NotesOnBaldwin ESSAY CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro and Black life in late 1960s
03:08 Billy Porter, Zionism and James Baldwin biopic
03:58 James Baldwin tries to write Malcolm X script
07:28 How 1968 and Hollywood breaks James Baldwin
12:04 The difference between the Baldwin and Spike Lee version of Malcolm X
15:58 Outro and conclusions
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[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

I hope everyone enjoys this video. I had so much fun working on it. ❤

[@troygaspard6732]

I agree, I don't think Porter has the range to play Baldwin. Being gay isn't enough to play such an intellectual titan.

[@moralfortitude...2217]

if he tones down the *flamboyant* attitude, maybe... 🤔

[@greenbyrdd8308]

Agreed. James Baldwin wouldn't have been caught dead in a dress on the red carpet. So not who he was. Billy Porter is a definite hard no for me.

[@efef6853]

Porter playing Baldwin, one of the greatest black intellectuals of recent history, is a joke in my opinion. If the biopic gets made, it's going to be a watered down trash made to please movie critics, it's not going to accurately portray the amazing life of James Baldwin.

[@StellarAvenger]

Chadwick Boseman would've bodied this role

[@melsutubeification]

PORTER could NEVER. Maybe Andre 300? Baldwin was overtly intellectual not overtly "sexual".

[@aubreewithaextrae]

I honestly hope the biopic doesn't happen or is done by a completely different person entirely because James Baldwin is one of the last people who needs a movie that's made only for some applause during award season. Great video 🙏

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Thank you for watching

[@ModernConversations]

😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮😮 The extent of a personality can't fit in a movie.

[@ceelothatmane9421]

I mean no one is gonna watch it either way other than artists and the academy and lgbt. The average black person today doesn’t even know who he is. My dad was born in 69 and doesn’t know who he is.

[@debbiethompson14]

Billy Porter IS NOT ONE OF US!!!!

[@yurp7444]

1st off. I adore how James Baldwin had more of an affinity towards Malcolm X Cracking the antiblack/antigay facade and narrative That gay black men are more docile and ‘safe’ 🚶🏾‍♂️

[@yurp7444]

Also 😌 I’m going to say it because I don’t care about respectability politics I remember the way that James wrote about how he felt when he went to go see Malcolm speak and the way that Malcolm ‘s eyes pierced through him. Also, i see here that James thought of Malcolm as a ‘soul mate’ Might James have had a slight crush on that tall fine man? 🚶🏾‍♂️

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

yesss. i love their friendship/kinship!

[@sparklemotion8377]

You mean the Hollywood/Liberal troop?

[@charlesa.boydmsced3493]

Correction -- Malcolm and Martin didn't just "pass away".

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Yup

[@kimberleymyles4130]

Time is relative. Stick to the issue, please.

[@imthatbishhh5152]

Lots of false information. Guy clearly just talking out his ass

[@Busto]

Growing up in the 80's & 90's I watched some violent sht. Nothing I had ever seen could prepare me for the tragic, honest & brutal way Spike Lee filmed Malcolm's assassination. It's been over thirty years since that first viewing. Every single frame of that scene is seered into my mind

[@shanegedula8183]

James Baldwin was an extraordinary human being

[@yurp7444]

Wow…I never knew that James tried to unalive himself, 😕 but it makes so much sense. As he said in the beginning of the vid, they kept killing his friends. And his friends were black freedom icons.

[@geminikid609]

Yeah even in his books he brings up suicide alot due to pressure and stress

[@yurp7444]

As much as I have, and will learn from Mr. Baldwin He would have benefited from hearing me talk about people ordering a double Whopper and onion rings substituted for the fries and a chocolate milkshake substituted for the soda And a Hershey pie On top of his freshly dug gr_ve. Weird alternate reality things like that bring me joy 😀 🚶🏾‍♂️

[@sum808s]

Thank you for this video and contextualizing with Malcolm X! Fuck Billy Porter, fuck the elites, and fuck revisionism!!

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Thank you for watching

[@dyrldouglas2087]

You'd be a better Baldwin than Porter.

[@jayekc]

I thought the same!

[@MaterialGworlKodi]

Agreed!

[@yurp7444]

On the abundant side, every biopic these days is accompanied with a dozen ‘What parts of the movie really happened?’ articles. They are more of a flashy advertisement for people to research more into a person.

[@ashlee616]

"Billy Porter is a known zionist." Well, THAT is disappointing.

[@Dork2099]

So this is a huge topic. Thanks to your analysis my rabid hunger to see my heroes “recognized” is tempered by the question of “what is proper recognition?”. Yet another syrupy Hollywood biopic probably isn’t it!

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

It’s an important question to think about

[@zhakreayounes5883]

James Baldwin was & still the first man i saw on clips i felt pure love towards him.I watched him with Nikki Giovanni.We lost giants.Rest in Glory & power 2 all of them.They will be loved,respect remembered ,till the world end.

[@desireealwayswinns]

Loved this analysis of Baldwin, the person! Looking forward to more videos 😊😊

[@HlumeloMatiwane]

I had no idea Billy Porter is a Zionist 💀very insightful video❤❤❤

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

thanks for watching

[@kierajw]

I learned so, so much from this brilliant video! Thank you for your research and for sharing your mind. To my mind, Porter taking on Baldwin as a Zionist and capitalist is in itself the paradox of his failure to see that he, ahem, didn’t just fall out of a coconut tree. How can one depict Baldwin writing Giovanni’s Room *without* engaging with his views on the Middle East? I’m extremely grateful for this video!

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Thank you for watching ! Porter being a part of a Baldwin movie is a blatant contradiction

[@laserspaceninja]

As a white trans woman who is starting to erase the white-washed images of these monumentally important black leaders and thinkers from my mind, I appreciate your research and explanation about James Baldwin. Finding this video is like finding a puzzle piece that was incorrectly jammed into the whole picture and replacing it with the correct one. The picture becomes less and less distorted and helps me become a better ally.

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Thank you for saying this

[@makeitmakesense2616]

Oddly off topic but thank you for saying this. Recently I've just been reminded of white people especially women taking up space. I greatly appreciate you independently doing the work. You'll never know how much this comment was what I needed to read. Thank you Cause you can't have black joy if you can't endure my black pain

[@pendafen7405]

@@makeitmakesense2616 There's evidence in many primary source historical texts of cultural female abduction and s lave markets globally, including from Europe to the African and Arabian subcontinents. Further, we may examine the roots of dowry across all cultures, as well the origin of medicine & psychiatry, and the history of piracy & raiding, too. It's likely female cave-people in every part of the world were getting routinely clubbed over the head, kidnapped and raped for the 'good of the tribe'. Anyone born with a female fertile body has been subject to significant potential threat of being made a broodmare, chattel, pawn, trophies, and lab-rat. Even Baldwin acknowledged such in his works (I think particularly of 'Just Above My Head'), and as he was an unflinching scholar with immense foresight & insight into the human condition, as well as a gay man who suffered the effects of misogyny second-hand, I applaud this empathy he showed in his work. Female subjugation predates racial division altogether. Giving passes to any man of any colour or orientation or delusion level is a mistake.

[@vegannn7178]

@@makeitmakesense2616Lmao image thinking you ate with that comment but instead end up sounding desperate for “whyte” approval and validation

[@anthonys8680]

Thank you Mr Shakur: I really appreciate the depth and quality and critical thinking you have put together here. Well done !!!

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Thank you for watching!

[@rasun316]

...i do hope Porter doesn't suffer the same challenges on this project that Baldwin himself did while working on the Malcolm X script.. your research and passion are a joy!

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Thank you for watching!

[@rasun316]

@@PrinceShakurKZbin ...thank you and the thumbnail looks great!

[@hannibal-elmrs.6275]

I hope Porter takes this man’s story seriously, and not just looking for a money grab! He is too important to the movement to be made a mockery of.

[@sakurakou2009]

​@@hannibal-elmrs.6275I don't trust him, he will betray James legacy

[@TrueCrimeTVTime]

You are the dream of the ancestors! Young, free, and vivid. You've opened my eyes a whole new perspective on some of my favorite historical figures.

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

You just made my morning ❤️

[@prometheus200]

Brotha, thank you for this. ❤❤❤. And yes, Billy porter is a shallow actor and writer to portray our jimmy.

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Thank you for watching

[@mountainlinx]

Great! Just a little correction, it's David Leeming, not Lemming

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

thank you

[@jtoddgreene6473]

Great insights! Just found you. Looking forward to more! Great work

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Awesome, thank you!

[@TheKenex357]

Thanks for the enlightenment on Billy Porter. However you incorrectly state Baldwin was writing a script for "Columbia Records" when you mean Columbia Pictures. They are two separate entities. Otherwise you give a brilliant critique on how Hollywood just bastardizes biographical portrayals of black folk.

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Ah true. I got them confused

[@BeastNationXIV]

I'm late but man, the interview video you pulled from in the first minute is one of my go-to pieces to watch in regards to Black/queer life, politics and community issues.

[@titutoyou]

You taught me some shit in the first 5 minutes of your video. I’ll subscribe.

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Glad it helped you

[@ericw1340]

Yeah, I’ll definitely be pirating the biopic. Fuck Hollywood.

[@RobertWesleyBranch]

This was really good. Your commentary was really insightful. I learned something. And I will definitely purchase and read your book. I’m looking forward to your next post.

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Glad it was helpful!

[@DiscoHank]

I remember they used to sell that Baldwin Malcom X script book at my local bookstores in the Bay Area. Didn’t buy it when I was young then but got it later on some years after that.

[@terryleederrick1927]

This is great good on you. I am not surprised about Porter. He always struck me as closer to the superficial drag side not that deep. i love X and James so much. I really loved the Malcom X biograghey terrifically. And Denzel I think did him some justice. Grreat work, thank you.

[@akoslice8819]

I appreciate the sprinkled sound effects. Great content

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Glad you like them!

[@Jackson_Roch]

Brilliant work brother! I appreciate you! 👍🏽🙋🏽‍♂️

[@PeaceIsWork]

Billy Porter is a good pone for Hollywood. There’s a rise in the interest of Malcom X so of course the establishment need to control the narrative and our collective imagination. Keep talking! Well done

[@dativajean9919]

Thank you so much for your work.

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

My pleasure!

[@RalphWinedt]

Good piece of commentary and illumination.

[@Savvynlady]

Billy Dee Williams spoke on him in his memoirs.writing the first known screenplay not long after Malcolm's passing. He got jaded and discouraged

[@sunnysocoolio]

Baldwin rec! Please Sonny's Blues i know it's popular but it's also my favorite short story!

[@Rjonesy101]

Billy Porter is the same character no matter the role. Baldwin was a complicated man, Billy doesn't have the he range despite being a Broadway actor.

[@jimmymaximusace]

Thanks very much.. From the Bahamas 🇧🇸🇧🇸🇧🇸❤

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

❤️

[@stefanol4886]

well done video, done with depth and class, just like Baldwin 👍🏽

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Thank you

[@bobonbobcrime]

Great video Prince! Sending love

[@imtime22]

Love it love it love it. A lot of black youtubers in this space end up getting burned out due to the heaviness of the topics- tee nior, kadijah, f.d. Etc. so please give yourself a time and space! When you pop you'll pop but protect your mind too!

[@roybruno100]

wonderful. Thank you.

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Welcome!

[@melsutubeification]

RE: The Title.. I agree regarding James Baldwin and Nina Simone. Two of my forever favorites!! Bless the ancestors. 🙌🏾🙏🏾👏🏾💜

[@WhatIThink45]

16:41 I’ve read all of Baldwin's books except the Malcolm screenplay. Baldwin's tension about art and ideology was a considerable disagreement between him and Richard Wright. It was an important debate in which there didn't need to be a winner. Most importantly, their approaches to portraying Black life are valid and useful. As for Lee's film, I think it's flawed in many ways because it was surface-level and part comical. Malcolm's life deserves a serious mini-series independent of Hollywood.

[@ilikeitlikethat7305]

This was really great listen

[@waywardboi]

Off topic you're adorable glad I found your video. I'm a subscriber now with just the vid I've seen. Good job looking forward to seeing more. BTW I love Baldwin but haven't read any of his books. Where would you suggest I start?

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Aw thank you

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

If you’re trying to read James Baldwin, I would recommend GIOVANNIS ROOM or ANOTHER COUNTRY or NOTES A NATIVE SON

[@cameroniizuka]

wow im just finding you and your page and this is so great! thank you so much for this video and the research that went into it. seeing billy porter commodify and misrepresent baldwin's story is really disappointing given the similarly massive and genocidal move to erase so many histories right now (book bans in US and the ongoing occupation of falastin esp come to mind). I feel similarly frustrated about the delusional rainbow capitalist recuperation we see from RuPaul rn as he pivots from starting a "queer" bookshop that sold some of the most heinous texts of white supremacist, transphobic, and blatantly fascist books in literal history to selling his memoir... sigh

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Thank you for watching! And yes it’s all a part of larger capitalistic processes

[@juniorjames7076]

I'm Black American, I taught English to university and high school students in Istanbul, Turkey in the mid 2000s. Apparently, James Baldwin also lived in Turkey off and on for 10 years during the 1960s, where he completed his novel Another Country. At a bookstore lecture I met some of his artistic/literary Turkish and expat friends who were rolling with him during that time. He even put up a theatrical performance. Baldwin is my favorite author and his life has inspired me to no end!

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Wow that’s amazing you got to spend time there. I’m aiming to do Baldwin research in turkey sometime soon

[@sum808s]

Biopics, at least recently, have been quite shite.

[@JenSell1626]

I’m not thrilled about every tragedy I can remember being Netflix content and eventually it’ll be your memories too. I try really hard to get people to pay attention to Marlon Riggs’ work, especially “Black Is, Black Ain’t” that his friends finished after his death from AIDS. It’s stunning. One of his films was on Max, and one on Kanopy for a minute, but I’m extremely glad to own the DVD of his collected works.

[@happyclappy1805]

They really have. I've completely renounced them. I'd rather watch documentaries or books that centre the subject's voice. These sleazy cash grabs are counter factual and counter productive. The last Billie Holiday pic put me off, Bohemian Rhapsody was the pits and that Nina Simone thing was sacrilege. I'm done

[@vbickford]

Maybe it's a different depiction for a different time. I stumbled on James Baldwin some years ago (during my white awakening a few years ago) and want to read his Malcolm X script treatment, poetical and all. Thanks for your content. I need all the help I can get.

[@realliving4354]

Great video

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Thanks!

[@lizofheartz]

This video is excellent.

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Thank you

[@davidyemm7910]

Marketing over substance. You want an audience, but at what price?

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Exactly

[@greidem8195]

Really good video sir

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Thank you

[@fraaz_k]

loved this video

[@TeraBombTheVeganVixen]

It is so concerning at how many stories of black historical figures are so wrong in the telling of them. James Baldwin is one of many. I have dreams of one day being on the writing teams of these biopics and being apart of telling history the RIGHT way! They should be honored better.

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

I just hope these bad depictions stop or slow down or a more radical indie black arts movement in cinema emerges

[@mx.walrus]

💪💪💪

[@jefferycook7450]

I disagree that Baldwin version would have been better then Spike however I enjoyed your take on Porter would be a bad choice like many writers the telling of his sexuality would dominate his life when he was a fighter for justice for black people I believe Jeffery Wright could play Baldwin just and sum color to the Brother 😊

[@garden_3130]

I want that wallpaper.

[@WeRNthisToGetHer]

I would LOVE to see you do a story on a wonderful man named David Liebe Hart. He is a talented black man and an all around beautiful person who has been very cruelly treated in Hollywood. I have been working with him since 2019. I can connect you, if you are interested. You could tell his story far better than if it came from me. I have a small channel and I am "white", though I hate the terms referring to skin color. Racism is silly in every form and skin color should make no difference in judgement of character. There are light skinned people of color and "dark skinned" Caucasians. Melanin has nothing to do with anything other than esthetics and is an excuse to judge people.

[@debbiethompson14]

I don't think they brought in the help because he drank a lot! A lot of people drink a lot and as an alcoholic I can tell you, sometimes we do our best work when we're drunk so..... No, they brought that person so he could manipulate him behind the scenes in pretense of helping him.🙄🙄🙄

[@LilLadyAy]

I would easily watch 10 hours of meaningful documentary and footage of every public appearance of James on a work day over considering watching that planned biopic. Reminds me of how war films can be so tasteless because there's so much that gets glossed over, seems to have gobe over the creator's head and wasn't entertaining enough, yet they'll make room for a bunch of Hollywood standard unnecessary additions, so tacky.

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

What’s your favorite speech or video of his?

[@LilLadyAy]

@@PrinceShakurKZbin maybe the talk at Cambridge university, it's a long one that covers a lot. *Edit* Actually this one had a pompous and theatrical man speaking in response and it's what is to be expected, just gave it a quick rewatch, the other guy is typical media dismissive, James's words and his work are just there to be disregarded and whatever this other guy was here to discuss had it not been for combat sake is unknown, 90% waffle but he mocks James's good reception, claims he's talking in a British accent (talking white) and plugs a white (jewish) 'intellectual' mans book for a explanation on problems blk people face.🤦🏾‍♀️ Still James's words stand all these years later even though this wasn't really a debate, how do you 'win' an argument when you're not given the chance to respond? He managed it, he offered a solid, articulate and easy to follow speech unlike his opposition, who provided us with a prime example of how we get silenced, one thing I'm greatful for today is being able to call out an attempt to silence being easier, it's not much but it's something. I remember this was why it felt long, it actually wasn't but we went in on waffle mouth.🤐

[@miketrotman9720]

A biopic is usually a clumsy, leaden approach to a character study. You need more compression of time and circumstance to bring the protagonist's "problem" to a point that illuminates the essence of the character. You also need to treat the subject as a character rather than as a real person for the story to be engaging. Otherwise, you're obliged to make a photorealistic, factual version of the character's life. You end up with waxworks, where the only real interest is how close you got to the "real" thing. I think Baldwin made that rookie's mistake of wanting to cram everything about Malcolm X into a movie. It needed a more selective approach: Find one crisis (doesn't even to be terribly big) that crystallizes the protagonist's central problem and confine the story to that. That's how you can get a movie like "The King's Speech," which is a much more stirring and illuminating story of difficulty and triumph than a shapeless, belligerent mediocrity like Spike Lee's "Malcolm X," for which Baldwin bears some culpability.

[@AtlLateNight]

Good video

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Thanks

[@panagenesis2695]

He sounds like an intelligent, talented and creative artist.

[@angelcertain8867]

Chadwick Boseman would have been perfect for Baldwin’s biopic.

[@gregoryallen0001]

james baldwin is a perfect example of someone who has lots of way better stuff to watch than a "biopic" (ew) not with ACTORS lolol

[@g4rgolya]

yes, hollywood should treat people better, but when the whole structure of hollywood relies and depends on abuse, i don't think it's possible

[@MoMAPS5]

MoMA PS5

[@makeitmakesense2616]

Im so pissed at rustin and pray they do not make this James Baldwin picture. It would break my heart I do dream of Titus Burgees in a Sylvester biopic

[@DiscoHank]

It’s funny to hear you talk about Baldwins poeticism in his script, when Black writers of his time such as Albert Murray, Ralph Ellison, and even Mario Puzo thought Baldwin was too much of a propagandist and had lost his artistry.

[@alpetterson9452]

How do you mean 'broke'?

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Take a guess

[@alpetterson9452]

@@PrinceShakurKZbin I'd rather not guess. I may guess wrong. And that wouldn't help me understand. I'm asking the person who made the video what meaning THEY intended.

[@alpetterson9452]

@@PrinceShakurKZbin Is it a secret?

[@WapajeaWalksOnWater]

Malcolm X and Medger Evers did not pass away, they were assassinated. There's a hugh difference

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Yup

[@guruuvy]

Porter bears no likeness to James Baldwin in countenance or demeanor. Ironically it was my second cousin’s birthday recently. Her mother is James Baldwin’s sister. I’m sure that she and her siblings would not approve.

[@waywardboi]

Regardless of how you feel about Billy Porter, no one I can think of off the top of my head would be a better fit. He's a damed good actor,I don't think he'd play with the legacy of Baldwin because of the dragging he'd get from the black community if he fucked it up.

[@katmorgo1892]

Honestly, I don’t know if capitalism can coexist with a nuanced inclusive story

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

I agree

[@akoslice8819]

You kind of look like Baldwin

[@carrgip]

And he talked about Black people being the real Indian of America..

[@myabbyohabby]

Baldwin Did Not place his homosexuality above his people. He fought for his people, not their sexuality. Billy Porter is about fighting for sexuality Not his people, unless those people are gay. This, imo, is a disgrace to Baldwin.

[@DaytimeNightmare]

He was gay right? We good.... This new Neolgbt sympathy has to slow👈👈🛑🛑🛑🛑and We need less Art in our community and more inventors/scientists

[@arielyanivhaorx8735]

I’m black from Detroit, living in Israel… You Weaponized the word Zionist as if it’s something there’s comparable to Nazi or Klansman and I’m sure you haven’t even sneezed in this direction of this part of the world. Let’s talk.

[@kenyaaragon3944]

Are you chill with the genocide yes or no only question

[@imthatbishhh5152]

How are y’all just labeling people a Zionist!!! That’s disgusting

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Yawn

[@imthatbishhh5152]

Wait so your in an Asian country talking shit about a an American actor. Y’all really need this KZbin check

[@imthatbishhh5152]

Can’t wait till they ban TikTok. Y’all make all kinds of lies to just make a story. Get your research together.

[@PrinceShakurYoutube]

Yawn