Amy Goodman: "Between the World and Me": Ta-Nehisi Coates in Conversation on Being Black in America

Ta-Nehisi Coates’ new book, "Between the World and Me," has been called "required reading" by Toni Morrison. "I’ve been wondering who might fill the intellectual void that plagued me after James Baldwin died. Clearly it is Ta-Nehisi Coates," Morrison said. "Between the World and Me" is written as a letter to Coates’ 15-year-old son, Samori, and has been compared to "the talk" parents have with their children to prepare them for facing police harassment and brutality. The book is a combination of memoir, history and analysis. In July, Coates came to the Democracy Now! studio to talk about the book and his upbringing in Baltimore. Transcript This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, as we spend the hour with Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of the new best-seller, Between the World and Me, written as a letter to his teenage son, Samori. Ta-Nehisi is a national correspondent at The Atlantic, where he writes about culture, politics, social issues. He received the George Polk Award for his Atlantic cover story, "The Case for Reparations," which he joined us in May to talk about. His book, Between the World and Me, is called "required reading" by Toni Morrison. She writes, "I’ve been wondering who might fill the intellectual void that plagued me after James Baldwin died. Clearly it is Ta-Nehisi Coates," she writes. Well, in July, Juan González and I had a chance to sit down with Ta-Nehisi Coates, before he moved with his family to Paris, to talk about Between the World and Me and his upbringing. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: In the book, you talk about the influences on your life, and specifically when you first began reading Malcolm X and the enormous influence he had on your life, and also the fact that your father was a member and a leader of the Black Panther Party, and the influence that those movements, of Malcolm and the Panthers, had on your consciousness in your upbringing. Show Full Transcript › http://www.democracynow.org/2015/9/7/between_the_world_and_me_ta