"You Mean It or You Don't invites readers to dream of a liberated future, hands us the tools, and then dares us to build it together."

- Elle Dowd, author of Baptized in Tear Gas: From White Moderate to Abolitionist

After a speech at UMass Amherst on February 28, 1984, James Baldwin was asked by a student: "You said that the liberal façade and being a liberal is not enough. Well, what is? What is necessary?" Baldwin responded, "Commitment. That is what is necessary. You mean it or you don't."

Taking up that challenge and drawing from Baldwin's fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and interviews, You Mean It or You Don't will spur today's progressives from conviction to action. It is not enough, authors Hollowell and McGhee urge us, to hold progressive views on racial justice, LGBTQ+ identity, and economic inequality. True and lasting change demands a response to Baldwin's radical challenge to move from dreams of justice to living it out in communities, churches, and neighborhoods.

Welcome to life with James Baldwin. It is raw and challenging, inspired and embodied, passionate and fully awake.

Pre-order available now!

"You Mean It or You Don't breathes necessary urgency for these times into readers familiar with James Baldwin's work and newcomers."

- Solomon Hughes, actor, HBO's Winning Time

"You Mean It or You Don't is fresh and hopeful. It moves me to think with, and even more, to live with James Baldwin's words and stories."

- Mihee Kim-Kort, author of Outside the Lines: How Embracing Queerness Will Transform Your Faith

"You Mean It or You Don't reminds readers of the intensity of James Baldwin’s moral demand for social transformation. It's not just a book, it’s a much needed blueprint."

- Valencia Clement, author of Chan Desperans: The Journey to Justice

"This powerful meditation on James Baldwin’s message to the world provides a spiritual call for social change for both the religious and irreligious among us."

- William A. Darity, co-author of From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century