If American politics is to regain its juice, recapture its vigor, it must be pushed and shaped by vibrant figures who hold it accountable. When [James] Baldwin and his friends confronted Bobby Kennedy, Kennedy got mad, but then anger gave way to honest reflection and sincere self-criticism. Bobby had to reckon with the invisibility of black humanity, even to his own liberal eyes, especially his own privileged eyes. But in that abrasive exchange with Baldwin and his friends, enough humanity seeped through to let him at least hear the echoes of their trauma. And in that moment there was emotional movement on his part, if not full-blown transformation.
-- Michael Eric Dyson, What Truth Sounds Like, p. 86
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