Ta-Nehisi Coates in conversation with Sam Fragoso at Live Talks Los Angeles
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 11 фев 2025
- Ta-Nehisi Coates in conversation with Sam Fragoso at Live Talks Los Angeles
discussing his book, "The Message." This event was taped with an audience on October 27.
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Between the World and Me journeys to three resonant sites of conflict to explore how the stories we tell-and the ones we don’t-shape our realities.
Ta-Nehisi Coates is the author of The Beautiful Struggle, We Were Eight Years in Power, The Water Dancer and Between the World and Me, for which he won the National Book Award in 2015. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, he is currently the Sterling Brown endowed chair in English at Howard University.”
“[Coates] is intellectually fearless . . . unshackled by political or racial ideology, humane in his judgments, respectful of facts, acutely aware of the difference between what is knowable and what is not.”-The New Yorker.
Just as Between the World and Me took the form of a letter to his son, The Message is crafted as a letter to his writing students. He bears an urgent message for them: their “task is nothing less than doing their part to save the world.”
Coates’s call to action is in fact a diagnosis of the political and social polarization currently sweeping the globe: the world is riven by stories. He comes to this realization not as a geopolitical wonk or a statesman, but as a journalist who has seen firsthand how stories are more powerful tools of persuasion than the assemblage of interconnected facts.
Ta-Nehisi Coates originally set out to write a book about writing, but found himself grappling with deeper questions about how our stories-our reporting and imaginative narratives and mythmaking-expose and distort our realities.
Written at a dramatic moment in American and global life, The Message is about the urgent need to untangle ourselves from the destructive myths that shape our world-and our own souls-and embrace the liberating power of even the most difficult truths.
In the first of the book’s three intertwining essays, Coates finds himself in two places at once: in Dakar, a modern city in Senegal, and in a mythic kingdom in his mind. Next, he takes readers along with him to Columbia, South Carolina, where he reports on his own book’s banning. In the book’s longest section, he travels to Palestine, where he sees the tragedy that lies in the clash between the stories we tell and the reality of life on the ground.
Sam Fragoso is the host of Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso, a weekly series of conversations with artists, writers, and politicians. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, and NPR. After conducting interviews with Spike Lee, Werner Herzog, and Noam Chomsky, he founded Talk Easy in 2016. The program is currently distributed by Pushkin Industries.
Rania Halek was that “heckler” who was heckled. And I love that her outspokenness for the truth watered the seed of inquiry enough so that Mr Coates began the journey for this book. And what a great book. I listened to him read it to me 3x already and now have the hardcopy. Truly appreciate The Message and its author. Thank You
Thanks for the context
I’ve watched damn near every T. Coates interview he’s done over the last 10 or so years. This interviewer is one of the most prepared, thoughtful interviewers I’ve seen with Coates yet. Wow. Kudos.
Every now and then we the grateful ones in the world are blessed by the presence of a fellow human being that will have an ever lasting impact and connection with us; such as Ta Nehisi Coates
This conversation with Ta-nehisi Coates is the exemplification of being human and extending the humanity to all that call themselves human. This was a real unapologetically raw conversation.
He is one of the bravest individuals I know. He knows the position taken could have an effect on his financial future. Students were suspended from universities because they stood up against Israel’s genocide. I applaud your position. Peace and blessings.
As a fan of both gentlemen, I’m disappointed to have missed this live discussion. Regardless, it was incredible. I enjoyed the podcast version.
We simply give thanks for Ta nehisi coates
I enjoyed this conversation so much… thank you 🙏
UNAPOLOGETIC firm and focused. Thank you Ta Nehisi
Moving and brilliant!!!
"We don't have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world."
Howard Zinn.
needed this reminder, thank you.
Amazing book. It’s amazes me how Black Americans, even thought the world has shown them nothing but racism and bigotry they find it in them to still stand with those who are fighting against oppression.
Me too.
what a singularly excellent conversation. Thank You. all the best from Austria.
Excellent conversation. Fragoso came prepared to ask more than the typical network news TV host . Thank G-d.How refreshing.
I suspect in time ( a very long time from now) Ta-Nehisi Coats will go down as one USA best writers / activist . Perhaps not in the USA but abroad. What I didn't hear Coats address - Why is it that African Americans are often the first to pick up the torch and carry the torch for those around the world who are not " Black " people, but historically oppressed people. And when those oppressed groups immigrate to the USA, many African Americans quickly find themselves feeling like they have a new biggot in town to deal with.
Friend to Coats and fellow journalist and youtuber-Marc Lamont Hill, presented this question to a Middle Eastern /Palestinian Activist and Lawyer, who was on his youtube podcast . In a nutshell she asked Hill the following- why weren't there more African Americans protesting to stop the American / Israeli war against the Palestinians? And I thought Hill's reply was very unexpected and very honest . The essence of his reply was the following- when oppressed people who do not identify as Black Africans migrate to USA, these new immigrants quickly take the same racist attitudes, behavior and practices as Old School White American society has done for centuries. Perhaps it is one of the hallmarks that makes one an "American" . I hope someone who is as honest, accurate, and articulate as Coats will acknowledge and address this very problematic conundrum. Coats thoughts on why this happens so often in the 21st century to African Americans who put themselves on the line and welcome the immigrant only to get the same old tish when they the immigrant arrives to a neighborhood near them.
Well, do you believe racism only exists in the US?
Thanks so much for telling these facts. There is so much power trying to keep people from seeing this truth❤
This book is so wonderful. The understanding of Africans brought to America as slaves and the home going visit to Dakar. The understanding of the genocide in Palestine and the connection to the apartheid in South Afrika and the history of America and her genocidal eras. This book must be read.
Very strong stance Mr Coates! Louis Farrakhan has been saying this for generations. Your articulation is clear and measured. Great way to share and teach about reparations for blacks. To make this connection political is interesting. Farrakhan does it religiously.
Excellent interview ❤
great conversation!
Wow this was so good
Excellent!!!
Read your book, power in the word.
I appreciate hearing more about an issue I've heard about for years. Now, I have more of an idea of the issues and why they have not adequately been addressed. Thank Ta'nehisi for that.
I am so surprised he's willing to engage with others to continue the discussion toward resolution. I recall he didn't want to work on how to engage with others to propose resolutions in "The Case for Reparations." That problem really needs you. That's your story. Work with it until it's done!
I can guarantee the Palestinians will get a resolution and reparations before any black Americans. That's sad if it happens as a result of The Message.
Are you serious? Are you aware they are being ethnically cleansed right now. There won't be a Palestinian state.
Brilliant writer. He's a great speaker as well.But seriously read his books and then come back with any questions or arguments
In the history is truthfully we will continue to repeat it
Brilliant interview.
"How do you hold it". "Very easily".
Coates could not be more right. The Jews have been priviliged and welcomed throughout the world for thousands of years, and all the Palestinians seek is the exact same priviliges and acceptance that the Jews have been blessed with for centuries. All the Palestinians want is to have what the Jews have had for 2,000 years!
In college I made sympathetic remarks about Palestine and someone, in a very sneaky way, by which I mean to taunt me, they gave me some digest on Israeli laws amounting to regarding Palestinians as 3/5ths of a person. I kept trying to follow up with that but sources were blank and no one seemed to know anything.
My god PREACHER!!! We have never had a chance to achieve our hopes and dreams through a Presidential election SINCE WE GOT THE CHANCE TO VOTE.
👏👏👏👏👏
Thanks for sharing.............. interesting Conversation
Thanks guys.....
Is Ta-Nehisi stating facts about some of the Israeli laws, roads, water distribution, water collection, etc.? If not can someone provide the corrections…….. if theses facts are TRUE we all must reflect upon our responsibilities in such a state of the affairs….. I love Israel but how do I reconcile my support with the existence and application of these inhumane laws?
If you truly loved israel then you would know that what Ta-Nehisi is saying is 100% true.
@ I believe he is telling the truth…. My comment is for the naysayers to come out…. I am embarrassed that these have been ‘hidden’ in plain sight for this long
@@Wezon5738 Your honesty and openess about your struggle is refreshing and appreciated. Most pro-Zionist leaning people have such strong barriers up, separation walls in their mind if you will, that they won't acknowledge any internal conflict around the apparent value contradictions. This talk and your reaction is how the world changes, in a nutshell.
@@joshchomsky we all just want integrity and decency and justice … I am not a Zionist I am just a human who believe the Jewish people have suffered a lot but this does not give them the licence to oppress other and lie about it… one will think they should know better but sadly that is not the case
Watch a film called where the olive trees weep. Read a book called the General son by Miko Peled. He is Israeli and comes from a long line of Israeli generals
Why is the interviewer doing heavy breathing after certain things TaNehisi says? 🤔
My brother....a lot of energy is spent on lying.
Good interview. To be honest, when it comes to Israel and Palestine, I don’t know what the answer is. It is not Netanyahu, who clearly does not care about Palestinians or Israelis, because he has isolated his own country with his criminal actions. I do feel for the Jewish people, who have been ostracized and scapegoated and subjected to violence throughout history, and that feeling of unsafeness and trauma must be horrendous and is clearly passed on. Starting there, and believing that, I read Mr. Coates’ phenomenal book and felt it deep in my bones. The Palestinians plight is just unthinkable. Horrid. And wrong, just wrong. I admit I did not know nearly enough about the trauma and violence and oppression being perpetrated there. Morally, the issue isn’t complicated. But in other ways, depending on who you talk to, it is. All that to say the book does what great art does: makes you think deeper, question fiercely and try harder to do more, learn more, and be more. I really thank him for that and urge him to keep writing and speaking. I think the blowback he has received is because the book does exactly what it is supposed to do: challenge. Respect for actually going to Israel and Palestine, to see for himself.
The answer is a one-state solution and I encourage you to research that solution using non-biased sources
@@syedabdul-rahman9544 Exactly! One Palestinian state, where everyone has a vote. The Palestinians have a RIGHT to autonomy and self-determination, and if the Jews are unwilling to give it to them, then the Jews must be forced to do whatever the Palestinians want. The Jews should have no say in whatever happens!
🙄 Don’t imagine Netanyahu is an outlier in Israel. In Spring 2024 Pew Research did a poll and 40% of Israelis think Israel’s military response to Oct 7 has been just perfect and another 40% think it’s been too soft (!). Face it, the war criminal Netanyahu well represents the cruel, genocidal, subhuman preferences of 80% of Israelis toward how to “deal with” Palestinians.
Gaza is like Georgia in the 1900s ain’t it?
My god PREACHER!!! You're the NYTimes, what are you leaving out. My god.
Where’s the outcry for Sudan?
What’s about Sudan? Who oppressing Sudanese, their identity crisis created the most problems and they’ll figure it out themselves.
Pea-brained whataboutism. The Sudan civil war is a very recent phenomenon, meanwhile Palestinians have been suffering from Israeli atrocities for the last 70+ years non-stop. And the West has been wholeheartedly supporting. Especially America sending them billions upon billions of dollars for decades
As soon as America has the sort of “special relationship” with the Sudan government - giving it bottomless military and financial support - then we’ll pay as much attention to it that we do Israel. In the meantime, America’s “special relationship” with Israel properly garners it “special scrutiny”. 😏
I’d love to ask him about if Africans owe Jewish people reparations for Egypt enslaving the ancient Israelites.
You mean do Ancient Egyptians owe Ancient Hebrews reparations. Jewish is a religion that the Hebrew people were practicing. Neither of them exist anymore. Get a life buddy! African Americans can be directly tied to the African slaves who built this country through DNA. WE ARE OWED!
Africa is a continent. There is no evidence to prove that hebrews were enslaved. Even if there was there is no way to prove that anyone living today is a descendant of the ancient hebrews. Your argument isn’t sound, rational, or intelligent. You should delete your comment and read a book.
@ Africa literally invented slavery.
@@marijo8786 Egypt enslaved the ancient Israelites. Its pretty well documented, in HISTORY BOOKS.
@@marijo8786 Egypt should give all tourism profits to Israel, since Jews built everything great about Egypt.
I wish he’d clear his throat.
where else on this planet can someone like coates who never graduated from a college with any degree ,could become chairman of the department of english at howard university.
Mr. Coates is not and has never been the chairman of Howard University's English department.
you are being sarcastically condescending!!! Lets name a few of your famous western famous people (intellectuals and others) that did not graduate college : Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Charles Dickens, President Harry Truman, Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin,...Shall I continue with the list?
@@user-xs8pb3on4z but none became a professor and received a chair at a university. that explains why we need affitmative action and dei
The deep sighs are distracting...