Tag Archives: Vanity Fair

re: #TaNehisiCoates and #VanityFair: Me And #JosieGonsalves On #AllPoliticsRLocal, Friday, July 3, 2026: Pastrami Over Politics With A Side Of Responsibility

Posted on by toddpanther
https://www.vanityfair.com/story/the-next-black-president?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=vf&utm_mailing=VF_VFD_PAID_062226&utm_medium=email&bxid=5c006f54cff06b61476a8260&cndid=55549133&hasha=c2b53ead44f69c1caddbc60036220e6e&hashc=b43e77ef8511b897f121d6fce05314e5f23b9c83c552b32c518c75fbee8552d6&mbid=&utm_campaign=VF_VFD_PAID_062226&utm_term=VYF_Cocktail_Hour_PAID

************************

And here’s my (repost of my) extensive talk on #JaredBall ‘s #imixwhatilike about #TaNehisiCoates when Coates published #TheMessage, his book featuring an essay on #Gaza. I jokingly call this my #KattWilliams interview 🙂

I put this in the Comments two days ago:

Listening to, and laughing about, this rant almost two years later…..

UPDATES:

There is now a book on the history of #TheVillageVoice. It’s called The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of #TheVillageVoice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture.

There is a book about Coates’ run on the #MarvelComics character #BlackPanther. It’s called Writing Black Panther: Ta-Nehisi Coates and Representation Struggles.

2:02:45: Freedom Fighter: My Life as a Soldier in the #BlackLiberationArmy, #AshaBandele‘s collaboration with Black #politicalprisoner #SekouOdinga, is due to be out October 2026, as of this writing.

CORRECTIONS:

14:07 ; 2:01:55: Political prisoner #MaroonShoatz openly said the goal of his 2024 book #IAmMaroon was to get a film deal, a la “#TheHurricane.”

37:41: The James Baldwin essay that pissed #RichardWright off was “Everybody’s Protest Novel.” Baldwin’s obit of Wright was “Alas, Poor Richard.”

50:26: I meant ” AMIRI BARAKA’s daughters from Hettie…”

59:41: The #JohnHenrikClarke essay was called “The Alienation of James Baldwin.”

#TaNehisiCoates #ImixwhatIlike #TheMessage #Blackwriting #politicaleconomy #JamesBaldwin #AlexHaley #AmiriBaraka #CornelWest #MayaAngelou #magazinejournalismhistory #Palestine #literaryjournalism

Wheee!!!! The Rising Tide of Trump TV

Posted on by toddpanther

And we’ll have fun, fun, fun….. 🙂 It’s clear that MSNBC has practiced on Donald Trump for years like Olympics training. 🙂 The fact that it finally has something simple to explain–counting votes, Mob-like behavior, holding secret documents, white men trying to be above the law–really helps. I never understood one word of its RussiaGate coverage.

Joy Reid, Nicolle Wallace and Rachel Maddow are Ivy(ish)-educated talented writers and broadcasters who were born perhaps for this exact moment. (Conversely, do you think that our Ivy-educated young sis, Abby Phillip, is ready to sound like them? Does she have the emotional strength/anger level to go for the jugular? Will CNN let her do so?) They get to finish a narrative they’ve been carrying on every afternoon/night for years. Reid has been really serious these last 10 days or so, and I like her that way instead of her many failures at trying to provide Jon Stewart/Trevor Noah-type entertainment. Maddow clearly wants to be a contemporary historian. And the Morning Joe team enjoys writing Trump’s obit every day.

I’d feel much better about this if MSNBC would re-hire the former in-house rebel Tiffany Cross. She did nothing wrong but be herself and tell her truth, 1969-style. But I guess one Al Sharpton is enough for the network, and even he won’t talk that way anymore….