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Ta-Nehisi Coates, Robin D.G. Kelley ponder racial injustice at library event

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“… the belief in the preeminence of hue and hair, the notion that these factors can correctly organize a society, and that they signify deeper attributes, which are indelible—this is the new idea at the heart of these new people who have been brought up hopelessly, tragically, to believe that they are White.”

—From “Between the World and Me,” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, 2015.

At this point in time, Ta-Nehisi Coates is possibly the foremost writer of color on the literary horizon. As the author of a newly released pocket-sized memoir, “Between the World and Me,” he has been toasted from coast to coast by such eminent media concerns as The Daily Beast, NPR, National Review, and the Wall Street Journal. And with each passing week, his accolades continue to mount. Since its release in July, his latest tome has become a New York Times best seller, National Book Award finalist, and winner of a MacArthur “Genius” fellowship with a no-strings attached cash award of $625,000. To top it off, Coates is about to enter the realm of pop culture by scribing the re-launch of Marvel Comics’ “Black Panther,” series in conjunction with acclaimed African American artist Brian Stelfreeze.

The hoopla began even before publication of his new book. Initially slated for a September release, its publication was pushed forward by Random House in the wake of the Charleston, S.C. shooting of nine churchgoers by an alleged White supremacist. The ongoing rash of violent interactions between the law and citizenry (most of them Black men) informs much of this 152-page volume that some describe as the literary successor to James Baldwin’s 128-page “The Fire Next Time,” printed in 1963. Both are composed in the form of essays, as cautionary missives to African American adolescents (Baldwin to his 14-year-old nephew, Coates to his 15-year-old son) about the challenges they face in the system’s undeclared mission to “to plunder not just the bodies of humans but the body of the earth itself.”

This momentum of his notoriety was carried forth to this week’s installment of the Los Angeles Public Library’s ALOUD lecture series, held at the downtown Mark Taper Auditorium (the podcast may be accessed at http://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/e-media/podcasts/aloud/ta-nehisi-coates-between-world-and-me).

Speaking before 250 people, Coates and UCLA history professor Robin D.G. Kelley explored the themes covered in the book, including the journey that took Coates from his native Baltimore (where he said “hip-hop was the literature of my life”) through his maturation at Howard University (which he called “the Mecca” in “Between the World and Me”), and his tentative steps towards a writing career in New York City, Philadelphia, and other East Coast cities. He achieved national prominence as a writer and editor on culture, political and social issues for “The Atlantic,” the venerated literary and cultural magazine in Washington, D.C.

The evening at the library proved to be a lively exchange about the current succession of police/Black male shootings and the national/sociological heritage that illuminate them. Especially poignant is the shooting death of his Howard contemporary, Prince Carmen Jones in 2000, (when an undercover Maryland policeman hit him with eight out of 16 rounds from his handgun in Virginia.) The son of a respected radiologist and medical doctor, Jones’ demise demonstrated again that the specter of race reaches up into the upper echelon of the African Diaspora.

Along with the trappings of professional and financial achievement comes the stress of public scrutiny, as Coates attests. Balancing the energy expended on completing a book versus the attention that awaited him at its completion, he summarizes both experiences thusly:

“The act of writing the book was fine; the weight put upon it (afterwards) was not so fine.”

He, in turn, was cordial to his audience, more than half of whom were not Black and actually comprised a healthy representation of the middle aged. In response to a question of what Whites should do, Coates expressed his belief that Black people should not assume the responsibility of dictating racial etiquette to their Caucasian brethren, since they are already consumed with the maintenance of their own conduct in this precarious environ.

Ta-Nehisi Coates will appear at a book signing sponsored by Leimert Park’s Eso Won Books that will be held at 7 p.m., tomorrow in the California African American Museum, 600 State Drive, in Exposition Park. Prospective attendees are urged to show up early. Details: (323) 290-1048.

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