Ta-Nehisi Coates on why tales matter within the age of Trump – podcast | Ta-Nehisi Coates

“This can be a cultural president. Make no mistake about it.”

For Ta-Nehisi Coates, the award-winning author and journalist, the US president, Donald Trump, and his allies clearly perceive the facility of story-telling in politics. Coates has not too long ago written a brand new ebook, The Message, and he tells Michael Safi that the tales advised in TV, movies, literature and past usually are not a distraction from politics at this time however are actively shaping it.

The pair focus on whether or not the political centre-left within the US has turn into uncomfortable competing within the cultural realm and is in some ways the extra conservative motion, adopting the function of steward of the established order. Additionally they look at the function of white supremacy within the narratives rising in opposition to progressive, identification politics.

Coates describes a go to to the Center East and the numerous gulf he sees between how the Israel-Palestine battle is portrayed in US media and what he witnessed on the bottom. The author additionally displays from an African-American perspective on the tales being advised about Israel and descriptions the response to his ebook up to now.

Assist the Guardian at this time: theguardian.com/todayinfocuspod