The Panopticon Review: Ta-Nehisi Coates On The Struggle Against the Doctrine and Practice of White Supremacy and the Current American Fascist State Led by Donald Trump and the Meaning of the National MAGA Movement

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Ta-Nehisi Coates On The Struggle Against the Doctrine and Practice of White Supremacy and the Current American Fascist State Led by Donald Trump and the Meaning of the National MAGA Movement

Confronting ‘cowardice’: How to fight Trump & racism with Ta-Nehisi Coates

Interviewe by Ari Melber
MSNBC

MSNBC

June 11, 2025

#trump #civilrights

VIDEO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbz37lWzAtQ

Many leaders of American institutions that claim to advocate democracy, truth and civil rights are failing to actually “fight for” them, argues author Ta-Nehisi Coates in this extended interview with MSNBC’s Ari Melber. The two discuss President Trump’s attacks on democracy, the rule of law and human rights; historical parallels to today’s debates; Coates’ evolution and creative process; and they mark the tenth anniversary of Coates’ acclaimed, best-selling book “Between the World and Me.”

Nina Simone (1933-2003)

"There's no other purpose, so far as I'm concerned, for us except to reflect the times, the situations around us and the things we're able to say through our art, the things that millions of people can't say. I think that's the function of an artist and, of course, those of us who are lucky leave a legacy so that when we're dead, we also live on. That's people like Billie Holiday and I hope that I will be that lucky, but meanwhile, the function, so far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times, whatever that might be."

Editor's Bio

Kofi Natambu, editor of The Panopticon Review, is a writer, poet, cultural critic, and political journalist whose poetry, essays, criticism, reviews, and journalism have appeared in many literary magazines, journals, newspapers, and anthologies. He is the author of a biography MALCOLM X: His Life & Work (Alpha Books) and two books of poetry: THE MELODY NEVER STOPS (Past Tents Press) and INTERVALS (Post Aesthetic Press). He was the founder and editor of SOLID GROUND: A NEW WORLD JOURNAL, a national quarterly magazine of the arts, culture, and politics and the editor of a literary anthology NOSTALGIA FOR THE PRESENT (Post Aesthetic Press). Natambu has read his work throughout the country and given many lectures and workshops at academic and arts institutions. He has taught American literature, literary theory and criticism, cultural history and criticism, film studies, political science, creative writing, philosophy, critical theory, and music history and criticism (Jazz, Blues, R&B, Hip Hop) at many universities and colleges. He was also a curator in the Education Department of Detroit’s Museum of African American History. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Natambu currently lives in Berkeley, California with his wife Chuleenan.

The Panopticon Review

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Ta-Nehisi Coates On The Struggle Against the Doctrine and Practice of White Supremacy and the Current American Fascist State Led by Donald Trump and the Meaning of the National MAGA Movement

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Susan Sontag (1933-2004)

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