The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates grabs you right from the beginning and refuses to let you go. The very first chapter, “Journalism Is Not a Luxury,” resonated with me immediately and with the mission of The DC Voice. The book starts with Coates recounting the summer of 2022, when he returns to Howard University to teach writing. Coates reminds us that we are storytellers. “Journalism, personal narrative, testimony, and stories” provide a way for us to digest and interpret the world we live in.
He talks about how books played a key role in his life. It echoes how a lot of us were raised. Books were our passage to other cities, countries, planets, lifestyles, and worlds beyond our block. A lot of us had to read the daily newspaper and talk about current events as part of our school curriculum. He also mentions having World Book Encyclopedias, the gold standard of encyclopedias at the time, which were rare in my generation. In our case, we were fortunate enough to have a second-hand set of encyclopedias that I don’t recall the name of, but from which we learned how to play chess, understand the universe, and explore a host of other topics brought into our world.
Each chapter builds on the other, from the works of Josiah Nott, a 19th-century American physician, ethnologist, and pseudo-scientist who gained notoriety for his theories on race. This section of the book captures the essence of how “niggerology” serves as a weapon by oppressors to dehumanize a race of people. This was done in order to justify the brutalities they orchestrated against them. The book also notes the separation of the Egyptian empires from the main continent of Africa.
The last two chapters of the book deal with the irony of him becoming a writer as he struggled during his formative years in the classroom, being restless in school and feeling like he was in a box. So many of us can relate to that feeling and also wonder how we managed to stay focused enough to reach certain goals in our lives. He concludes with his longest chapter, highlighting certain aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that are tinged with oppressor mentality. I will not interpret Coates’ words for you – read them as he penned them so you can gather your own understanding of his perspectives.
The Message is a must-read.