Ta-Nehisi Coates Interviews

Hunter Garrett
Post #3
Ta-Nehisi Coates Interviews

        The NPR interview, "Ta-Nehisi Coates On His Work And The Painful Process Of Getting Conscious," was quite interesting and unique considering how it utilized a more informal style since it was a phone interview.  It was about how he got the inspiration for his book as well as racial inequalities.  The interviewer listing out Coates's many awards and accomplishments which shows her research done on Coates before the interview itself.  When asked about his acceptance speech; Coates then goes on to say that he dedicated his National Book Award to Prince Jones, a friend at Howard University, who was killed in 2000 by a Prince George's County police officer who followed him.  He stated that nothing ever happened to the officer involved and that it bothered him that Jones died and was simply forgotten.  Coates then states that, "It may well be our responsibility, but it certainly is not our fault."  This is indisputable proof of racial inequality in America and he pointed out that it isn't the fault of any African American despite the responsibility that they may take for it.  Coates also stated that he writes as direct and honest as he can while trying to not make people feel uncomfortable.  When he was asked if there was pressure on him for being an oracle of the race, he replied that he didn't want that job at all since one person cannot be the spokesperson for that experience and that he was very careful in what he could and couldn't talk about.  He rejected the thought of him or anyone being an oracle and he clearly puts immense thought into his words to say what wants to say without increasing the tension between the races.
        The other interview from PBS Newshour, "Ta-Nehisi Coates: 'We made that decision' to have mass incarceration," was rather different from the NPR interview considering how much more professional and serious it was.  It was about the mass incarceration of African Americans, racial inequality, and also potential reparations for them.  The interviewer asked him if he was pessimistic about America or African Americans and Coates replied that he wouldn't call it pessimistic and stated that any struggle worth having takes place across generations.  When the interviewer asked him about his term, "gray wastes," he stated that it is a description of the prison system containing those who are incarcerated.  The interviewer also brings up how African Americans do commit more crimes and Coates did acknowledge this stating that there was also a crime rise.  However, he also pointed out that crime rise was an international phenomena that wasn't just unique to African Americans.  He also described reparations as a long term solution to the huge discrepancy in wealth among the races.
        Both of these interviews had interviewers that researched who Coates was and knew what his books were, especially his book Between the World and Me, and they knew exactly what questions they wanted to ask.  They also transitioned to each question very smoothly and asked really intricate questions that made Coates think about his book inspiration and even question if he had any pessimistic views.  They also both involved racial inequality as a huge topic.  However, the NPR interview felt slightly more like a conversation in a way since the interviewer wasn't completely rigid and did branch off into other questions not related to his book like with the question on whether he still fasted on Thanksgiving towards the end.  The PBS Newshour interview, on the other hand, had an interviewer who was a lot more serious who tried to bring out more of a political view on Coates.  She asked questions that were always on topic with Coates that didn't branch out completely away from incarceration.  She even put a ton of emphasis on whether or not Coates had a pessimistic view of America or African Americans or not since she referred to it twice in the interview.  She was completely set on getting specific responses and it felt more as though she had her questions ready in advance to eliminate the need for any improvisation.  The two interviewers were both very well prepared and I admired how articulate Coates's responses were and how he explained certain thoughts in great depth.