ABSTRACT
This chapter examines whether sociology has engaged James Baldwin's work as a source of social theory. It considers why sociology has not mined Baldwin's work for social theory more. Baldwin contributes to social theory through his notion that white's belief in their racial innocence prevents them from confronting white supremacy and his intersectional practice of examining race, gender, and sexuality. A brief biographical sketch can help frame how sociology has received Baldwin's work. Baldwin was born poor in 1927 in Harlem, the oldest child of nine siblings. He was a child preacher for several years before renouncing organized religion and dedicating his life to writing. Sociologists of race may have inherited this practice of divorcing Baldwin's racial and sexual analysis from African-American Studies. That discipline has begun to reckon with what they have lost by constructing what McBride has deemed straight black studies. Baldwin's epistemology, grounded in experiential knowledge, rather than scientific study, accounts for his intersectional approach to race.
