Far-left author Ta-Nehisi Coates continued his book tour on Thursday when he joined MSNBC’s Joy Reid on The ReidOut. Together, the duo would recall Coates’s trip to Senegal and lament the fact that people were doing “what, I guess, they do on the beach” outside of his hotel near an important historical landmark for the slave trade.
Reid began, “I just want to start with this, kind of, you tell these three stories, and the story in Senegal was heartbreaking in that it spoke to the colonization that remained trapped in the minds of even people on the continent, which is not something black folks think about. Talk about experiencing that.”
As Coates was speaking, MSNBC put up photos of the House of Slaves museum and memorial on the Senegalese island of Gorée just off of the capital city of Dakar, where it is believed by some that over a million enslaved people passed through before being loaded onto slave ships.
With that as background, Coates replied, “Yeah, you know, I mean, one of the things I say toward the end of the book is I didn't get my adult passport until I was 37 years old, oddly enough the same year The Case for Reparations was published, and obviously because of that, you know, I went to Africa relatively late. In fact, travel and international travel for me was largely, like, I guess a lot of people, enjoyment, vacation, and I put off this trip back home, as they say, and I put it off because I knew it wasn't going to be a vacation.”
Coates added, “And in fact, what it turned out to be was a kind of pilgrimage, a confrontation with images of myself, images of ourselves as black folks, and really ultimately, I would have to say a mourning.”
For her part, Reid concurred, “It is. And I think having been there and done a, sort of, version of that in Ghana, you have, there's a sorrow to it, and there's a deep sort of, there’s almost something kind of offensive about the idea that it's tourism, you know, for people to do.
Coates was relieved someone agreed, “Oh, my god. You know, I was in this hotel. I'm glad to hear you say that. I feel bad about it, but I was in this hotel, and it was right on the beach. I would walk out and I would see people doing what, I guess, they do on the beach and I looked at them like they were out of their minds.”
Reid recalled, “Out of their—I did the same,” as Coates continued, “Because, you know, to us, it's not a beach, right? It’s not a beach.” The pair agreed that “it’s a tomb.”
If the Senegalese government wanted to turn the whole island into a memorial, they could, but have chosen not to, no doubt, in part, because over 1,600 people live there. Is Coates trying to shame them for going to the beach? What about the Senegalese vacationers themselves? Should people who visit the Normandy beaches be perpetually dour even when they are not at the memorials?
Reid then claimed, “And so the way that I kind of married that part to the second part of your book is that you then have people fighting the history that Africa is the start of, right? You get to South Carolina and people say, 'No, we don't want that history, we don't want the 1619 Project. We want denial.'”
Nobody who criticizes the 1619 Project is denying slavery, just like nobody who goes to the beach is denying slavery.
Here is a transcript for the October 3 show:
MSNBC The ReidOut
10/3/2024
7:34 PM ET
JOY REID: I just want to start with this, kind of, you tell these three stories, and the story in Senegal was heartbreaking in that it spoke to the colonization that remained trapped in the minds of even people on the continent, which is not something black folks think about. Talk about experiencing that.
TA-NEHISI COATES: Yeah, you know, I mean, one of the things I say toward the end of the book is I didn't get my adult passport until I was 37 years old, oddly enough the same year The Case for Reparations was published, and obviously because of that, you know, I went to Africa relatively late. In fact, travel and international travel for me was largely, like, I guess a lot of people, enjoyment, vacation, and I put off this trip back home, as they say, and I put it off because I knew it wasn't going to be a vacation.
And in fact, what it turned out to be was a kind of pilgrimage, a confrontation with images of myself, images of ourselves as black folks, and really ultimately, I would have to say a mourning.
REID: It is. And I think having been there and done a, sort of, version of that in Ghana, you have, there's a sorrow to it, and there's a deep sort of, there’s almost something kind of offensive about the idea that it's tourism, you know, for people to do.
COATES: Oh, my god. You know, I was in this hotel. I'm glad to hear you say that. I feel bad about it, but I was in this hotel, and it was right on the beach. I would walk out and I would see people doing what, I guess, they do on the beach—
REID: Yes.
COATES: — and I looked at them like they were out of their minds.
REID: Out of their—I did the same.
COATES: Because, you know, to us, it's not a beach, right? It’s not a beach.
REID: It’s not a beach. It’s a tomb.
COATES: Yes, it’s a tomb.
REID: And so the way that I kind of married that part to the second part of your book is that you then have people fighting the history that Africa is the start of, right?
COATES: That's right.
REID: You get to South Carolina and people say, “No, we don't want that history, we don't want the 1619 Project. We want denial.”
