CBS Host Tony Dokoupil Dragged For ‘Aggressive’ And ‘Extraordinarily Hostile’ Ta-Nehisi Coates Interview

Author Ta-Nehisi Coates is seen onstage during the Alight Align Arise: Advancing the Movement for Repair National Conference at Thompson Buckhead on June 7, 2023, in Atlanta, Georgia. | Source: Carol Lee Rose / Getty

CBS Mornings co-host Tony Dokoupil served as a reminder of how white journalists have historically treated Black intellectuals, particularly those who refuse to help perpetuate views that have already been given plenty of air time in mainstream media. During a panel discussion with acclaimed author, educator and activist Ta-Nehisi Coates , Dokoupil took a particularly aggressive approach to questioning Coates about his book The Message , which draws parallels between Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinians and the Jim Crow South in America.

Apparently, Dokoupil wasn’t a fan of the book, and he wasn’t shy about saying so.

“I have to say, when I read the book, I imagine if I took your name out of it, took away the awards and the acclaim, took the cover off the book, the publishing house goes away, the content of that section would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist,” Dokoupil said. “So then I found myself wondering, why does Ta-Nehisi Coates – who I’ve known for a long time, read his work for a long time, very talented, smart guy – leave out so much? Why leave out that Israel is surrounded by countries that want to eliminate it? Why leave out that Israel deals with terror groups that want to eliminate it? Why not detail anything of the First and the Second Intifada, the cafe bombings, the bus bombings, the little kids blown to bits? And is it because you just don’t believe that Israel in any condition has a right to exist?”

So, before we get into Coates’ response, I’d just like to take the liberty of translating Dokoupil’s diatribe as I heard it, being very much fluent in Caucasian condescension:

“First, if you weren’t as popular as you are, nobody would like your little Jihad book and everybody — and by ‘everybody,’ I really just mean ‘white people’ — would be saying, ‘Hey who the hell does this Muslim extremist think he is?’ But, hey, I’ve known you for a long time and I definitely have a lot of fake love for your work, so I’m just really disappointed that you haven’t taken the same approach to discussing the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that most mainstream politicians, news outlets and political commentators have taken ad nauseam. So, let me begin with the one and seemingly only talking point employed by pro-Israeli advocates, which they use as their go-to argument against any and all allegations of genocide, ethnic cleansing, colonialism and other anti-humanitarian atrocities committed by the Israeli government and its allies:

Doesn’t Israel have a right to exist?”

Again, this might not be exactly what Dokoupil said, but just as he read Coates’ book through his own lens, I couldn’t help but hear his line of questioning the way I did given the history of the white majority being completely dismissive of how power dynamics and systemic oppression actually work.

Anyway, here’s Coates’ response:

“Well I would say the perspective that you just outlined, there is no shortage of that perspective in American media. That’s the first thing I would say. I am most concerned always with those who don’t have a voice, with those who don’t have the ability to talk.

I have asked repeatedly in my interviews whether there is a single network, mainstream organization in America with a Palestinian-American bureau chief or correspondent who actually has a voice to articulate their part of the world. I’ve been a reporter for 20 years. The reporters of those who believe most sympathetically about Israel and it’s right to exist don’t have a problem getting their voice out. But what I saw in Palestine, what I saw in the West Bank, what I saw in Haifa in Israel, what I saw in the South Hebron Hills, those were the stories that I have not heard and those were the stories that I was most occupied with.”

Exactly. This was a very reasonable and logical response by Coates and one that didn’t necessarily deny Israel’s perceived right to exist, but rather, promoted the lesser-promoted narrative regarding Palestinians’ right to exist and be treated humanely.

And Dokoupil seemingly didn’t hear a word of it.

“But if you were to read this book, you would be left wondering, ‘Why does any of Israel exist? What a horrific place committing horrific acts on a daily basis.’ So I think the question is central and key. If Israel has a right to exist, and if your answer is no, then I guess the question becomes why do the Palestinians have a right to exist? Why do 20 different Muslim countries have a right to exist?” he said, basically repeating his first question in a way that somehow managed to be even more obnoxious. “You write a book that delegitimizes the pillars of Israel. It seems like an effort to topple the whole building of it. So I come back to the question, and it’s what I struggled with throughout this book, what is it that so particularly offends you about the existence of a Jewish state that is a Jewish safe place and not any of the other states out there?”

“There’s nothing that offends me about a Jewish state,” Coates responded, displaying a nearly unfathomable degree of patience for a man who is clearly relying on the words “right to exist” the way cops rely on the words, “I was in fear for my life” after gunning down an unarmed Black person. “I am offended by the idea of states built on ethnocracy, no matter where they are. I would not want a state where any group of people lay down their citizenship rights based on ethnicity. The country of Israel is a state in which half the population exists on one tier of citizenship and everybody else that’s ruled by Israeli exists on another tier, including Palestinian Israeli citizens. The only people that exist on that first tier are Israeli Jews. Why do we support that? Why is that okay? I’m the child of Jim Crow. I’m the child of people that were born into a country where that was exactly the case, of American apartheid.”

Coates even tried appealing to Dokoupil’s seemingly skewed sense of humanity by recalling that his Palestinian guide in Israel was not able to “ride on certain roads,” or “get water in the same way that Israeli citizens” were able to. This also seemingly bounced right off of Dokoupil, who erroneously asked if Palestinians were complicit in their own oppression via their inability to simply say the Israeli government: Hey, this apartheid stuff is bad, so could you quit it, please?

“Why is that? Why is there no agency in this book for the Palestinians?” Dokoupil asked. “They exist in your narrative merely as victims of the Israelis, as though they were not offered peace at any juncture, as though they don’t have a stake in this as well.”

“Either apartheid is right or it’s wrong. It’s really, really simple. Either what I saw was right or it’s wrong,” Coates shot back. “I am against a state that discriminates against people on the base of ethnicity. I’m against that. There is nothing the Palestinians could do that would make that okay for me.”

After the interrogation-like interview, the fine folks on X, including a litany of journalists, responded with immediate scorn, with some even calling for CBS to rid itself of Dokoupil.

SEE ALSO:

S.C. Teacher Who Taught Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Book Feels Betrayed By White Students Who Reported Her

Ta-Nehisi Coates Attends South Carolina School Board Meeting About Banning His Own Book

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