Ta-Nehisi Coates Talks Arts,
Reparations At Glimmerglass
By JENNIFER HILL • Special to AllOTSEGO.com
COOPERSTOWN – Described as “the greatest essayist on race in America since James Baldwin,” Ta-Nehisi Coates did not mince words as he replied to pre-submitted questions read aloud by moderator Teresa Miller, SUNY system’s chief diversity officer, at The Glimmerglass Festival’s Alice Busch Opera Theater yesterday.
“A majority of Americans have deeply misunderstood how deep white supremacy runs in America,” he told the packed theater. “We have never fully accepted black people; we don’t see them as more than second-class citizens.” Coates said that lack of acceptance allowed us to see four Congresswomen of color and Baltimore as not truly American when President Donald Trump attacked them, “a tactical move I compare to what Hitler did.”
Coates cited arts and academia as “responsible for the maintenance and durability of black people being seen as inferior” because the arts are about “what it means to be human…and black people are shown to be inferior.” But he also said, “For the first time ever, black artists have started occupying space, citing black fiction writers and painters as well as boys and girls wanting to be Black Panther for Halloween.
On the topic Coates is mostly known for, reparations, he said for reparations are not a white person writing a check to a black person. Two criteria have to be fulfilled for reparations to take place: “They must alter how we see the past and it’s harmed-based – not because I have black skin.”
And to the final question on what his new book, “The Water Dancer,” Coates said, “In it the word ‘free’ is bigger and larger than the main character thinks I’m not saying anything more because I want you to buy and read the book.”
We won’t have to wait long; “The Water Dancer” will be out this September.