A slightly abbreviated version of this interview first appeared in Morning Star on August 14, 2024.
Frederick Joseph is the two-time New York Times bestselling author of The Black Friend (2020) and Patriarchy Blues (2022), as well as the author of Better Than We Found It (2022) and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever - The Courage to Dream (2022). He was recognized for the International Literacy Association's 2021 Children's & Young Adults' Book Award, is a 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 list-maker for marketing and advertising, an activist, philanthropist, and a poet. Joseph was also honored with the 2023 Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Vanguard Award, the 2018 Comic-Con Humanitarian of the Year award, and is a member of the 2018 The Root list of "100 Most Influential African Americans."[Row House Publishing]
Hawkins: The title of your new book is We Alive, Beloved. The word We is very important in your poems and in your life's journey as a friend, as a dad, as a lover, as a son, and even as a client to a therapist. What's so important about We?
Joseph: We have a very 'I'-focused society and I just want us to get back to understanding that if we don't do this thing called life-as-a-village, we're going to fail. We were not meant to be alone. That is not the experience of humans or of any living creature. Everything has to be connected in order to live to its fullest potential.
Hawkins: What's the difference, if any, between experiencing life as a poet and experiencing it as an ordinary human?
Joseph: I try not to think of myself as looking at the world differently than the average person who's not publishing books of poetry. I try to remind myself that all of us are creating our own poetry every day. That everyone's experiencing in the world is art.
'The face-off between Trump and Harris is going to cause a racial chasm in this country'
Hawkins: One recurring image in your new volume that struck a chord with me was The Black Hole. Can you explain a bit more about how and why you came to focus on that metaphor?
Joseph: I love the idea of the cosmos. As a kid, I loved researching and reading about string theory and about black holes, whose gravity has the strongest pull of anything in the known universe. But what if love and honoring relationships was actually stronger than that pull? The black hole left by my father's death was supposed to be a gravity that would destroy me. But all the love that my uncles and my mother and my grandmother and my friends and my professors and my coaches poured into me was a power stronger than the gravity of a black hole?
Hawkins: You wrote a bestseller called The Black Friend: On Being A Better White Person. Cheeky. Have you noticed any white friends trying to be better? Or can you tell that they still have that card up the sleeve?
Joseph: I've certainly had countless white friends, especially from my youth -- high school and junior high and college -- who read the book, and they're like, Oh my God, I hope this isn't about me. I'm sorry, and, just so you know, I'm trying to be better and I apologize for anything I've potentially done.
I think generally I receive, you know, probably like 2000 emails a year since the book came out with white people just apologizing, you know, for, I suppose, being white.
Hawkins: Yeah, I was worried about doing this interview. I might be feeling pretty white, and it would show. I mean, how can I hide my skin?
Joseph: That's hilarious. Cheekiness aside, I think that a lot of white people do get nervous talking to me as if being honest about my experiences with racism was somehow going to make it difficult to talk with them. It became a bestseller because it wasn't another survey book, like, say, The History of Racism, or something like that. Black Friend drills down to experiential moments. And I think white people love that. They're like, Oh, cool. Great. So I just will not do that anymore. Thanks for letting me know. You know, like as opposed to having to conceptualize. Okay. So, um, education in America is largely racist. Uh. Got it. Okay. Duly noted. Thanks.
Hawkins: Joe Biden's out. Kamala's in. Will she defeat Trump and the MAGA element? Or will it devolve to a racial battle that will open up the gory gashes of the past? In your Substack piece, "Kamala Must Contain Multitudes," you describe Harris as a disappointment and express doubts she can contain the multitudes required to be a true leader. Can you say more?
Joseph: I very much do want her to defeat Donald Trump. But on the other hand, she has been a disappointing force -- not just, in terms of race or anything like that, but in terms of humanity, quite frankly. Separating children from their families, crossing the border as refugees; or, not wanting police to wear body cams after Trayvon Martin and other such incidents. That's a failure of humanity and moral degradation.
So, I'm hoping she understands she has to be more to win this election. Has to appeal to people who do look at her record and political legacy. Appeal to people she's disenchanted. But win or lose, I think the face-off between Trump and Harris is going to cause a racial chasm in this country. I think, in terms of racial tension, we haven't seen anything yet.
Frederick Joseph can read and responded to at his Substack site.
Read my brief review of We Alive, Beloved here.
