Ta-Nehisi Coates Interview

Vanessa Panetta    
HON 101
Blog post 3

      One thing I noticed about the interviews is that they aren't afraid to get personal. For example, in the NPR interview Martin's first question is about Ta-Nehisi Coates' recent acceptance speech regarding Prince Jones and she asked him to explain more about that. In the New Yorker interviewer, some of the first questions he was asked had to do with is religion and economic situation growing up. I think in a way, that's brave to ask deeper questions. If all goes well, you get really pure answers with new information that the interviewee has never told anyone else. However, you never know what emotions your questions may trigger. If the interviewee is provoked, they could lash out at the interviewer.
     Something else I noticed about Ta-Nehisi Coates during his interview is that he is very careful with what he says. For example, in the NPR interview, he denies that he is an "oracle of race" as Martin put it, explaining that he is very careful with what he feels qualified to talk about and wants his readers to understand that just because someone writes about an event or experience, it does not make them the spokesperson for it. I think since he is writing books that are subject to controversy, when he does interviews he doesn't want to cause any more conflict or controversy. He wants people to know he is writing from his heart, and is not attempting to hurt or offend anyone when he does it. I think he does a good job of coming off as very level-headed and reasonable in his interviews.
    The interviewers were also very conversational. The interviewer always asked questions that provided longer answers, and they always responded to what Ta-Nehisi said with relating questions. In the New Yorker interview, they went from talking about religion to economic situations to civil rights to obama, and it flowed really nicely, making it easy to listen to.
    Overall, I enjoyed listening to the interviews. The interviewers always asked intriguing questions and Ta-Nehisi Coates was a good interviewee as well, he gave thoughtful answers that told a lot about himself to the interviewer and the listeners.