Book Summary: The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates Details & Statistics

Statistics Of The Message A Novel by Ta-Nehisi Coates

• Title: The Message
• Author: Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Genres:
  • Nonfiction
  • Essays
  • Politics
  • History
  • Race
  • Audiobook
  • Memoir
• Editions Available: 7 editions

Best Sellers Rank:

• Overall Rank: #6 in Books
• Category Rankings:
  • #1 in U.S. State & Local History
  • #1 in Black & African American Biographies
  • #2 in Discrimination & Racism

Customer Reviews:

• Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (463 ratings)

The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates Quotes

1. I guess I should say that this sense of Dakar as any kind of origin point for Black America is itself a story, an invention. The invention is a collective one, an origin imagined and dreamed up to fill an emptiness of a people told that they come from nothing and thus have done nothing and thus are nothing.

2. You cannot act upon what you cannot see. And we are plagued by dead language and dead stories that serve people whose aim is nothing short of a dead world. And it is not enough to stand against these dissemblers. There has to be something in you, something that hungers for clarity. And you will need that hunger, because if you follow that path, soon enough you will find yourself confronting not just their myths, not just their stories, but your own.

3. But I know how sadness can exert its gravity, growing more powerful the longer it holds you.

4. But when you live as we have, among a people whose humanity is ever in doubt, even the small and particular—especially the small and particular—becomes political.

5. But it is the journalists themselves who are playing god—it is the journalists who decide which sides are legitimate and which are not, which views shall be considered, and which pushed out of the frame. This power is an extension of the power of other curators of the culture—network execs, producers, publishers—whose core job is deciding which stories get told and which do not.

6. This meant that we could never practice writing solely for the craft itself, but must necessarily believe our practice to be in service of that larger emancipatory mandate.

7. There has to be something in you, something that hungers for clarity. And you will need that hunger, because if you follow that path, soon enough you will find yourself confronting not just their myths, not just their stories, but your own.

The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates Table Of Contents

Dedication

Epigraph

• Part I: Journalism Is Not a Luxury
• Part II: On Pharaohs
  
• Part III: Bearing the Flaming Cross
  
• Part IV: The Gigantic Dream

Notes on Sources

About the Author

The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates Book Summary

Part I: Journalism Is Not a Luxury

Journalism is not an indulgence; it is essential. This portion discusses Coates’ thoughts on journalism as a critical instrument for political and social equity. He delves into the use of writing as a tool to resist systemic oppression, highlighting how Black writers such as Harriet Jacobs and Ida B. Wells utilized their craft to reveal the injustices of slavery and lynching through personal stories and historical context.

Part II: On Pharaohs

This part discusses Coates’ examination of identity, African history, and the ways African Americans relate to a vibrant heritage of monarchs, leaders, and advanced societies. He criticizes the idea of idolizing pharaohs and African royalty, stating that the real value of humanity lies not in hierarchies of power but in the worth of everyday lives.

Part III: Bearing the Flaming Cross

Coates turns his attention to the African-American fight against systemic violence and institutionalized racism. He ponders the lasting impact of slavery and segregation, sharing tales of defiance and endurance, and exploring how stolen and covertly transmitted knowledge has served as a significant means of resistance for African Americans.

Part IV: The Gigantic Dream

The last part broadens Coates’ thoughts to a worldwide level, comparing the Black experience in America to the challenges faced by Palestinians and other colonized populations.

About the Author: Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates is a renowned author of several critically acclaimed works, including The Beautiful Struggle, We Were Eight Years in Power, The Water Dancer, and Between the World and Me, the latter of which won the National Book Award in 2015. Coates is a National Magazine Award recipient and a MacArthur Fellow. He is currently the Sterling Brown Endowed Chair in the English department at Howard University.

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• Author’s image source: wikipedia.com
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