In “Nothing Personal,” his 1964 collaboration with photographer Richard Avedon, James Baldwin wrote plainly on the complexities that, even today, continue to shape the American condition. This lyrical line feels almost apocalyptic in its warning. Baldwin, an incisive truth-teller, knew that failing to recognize ourselves in each other could be our downfall as humans. Progress — survival, even — depends on this mutual care, and without it, we risk losing not only each other, but our sense of direction and purpose altogether.