Maybe there is a point where we will understand that the extremist who has a book in their backpack is the one who is right and all the “normal” and so called reasonable people are the ones who are wrong. Just because you might be surrounded by people who hold your views, doesn’t mean those views are moral. We get so comfortable in our thinking. There is a certitude that comes with being in lockstep with the majority. It takes courage, maybe desperation, to speak out against the views of the majority.
The thing about Dokoupil's comment about the backpack is that he prefaced that by stripping Coates of all of his accolades. I saw a brief clip of what I'm sure is a longer interview of Coates with Trevor Noah, and Coates told Noah that he wasn't offended by that tack because he doesn't think of the awards as "him". Fair enough, and I understand where he's coming from; but what Dokoupil was doing was reducing him for the audience so that they could see him not as an award-winning and thoughtful author but as a shorn Black man, now attributed with "extremist" ideas. Dokoupil was transforming Coates into a ragtag terrrorist with this rhetorical technique. And it's important that he did this right out of the gate -- he knew he needed to do this.
As for your note about conformity, I've mentioned in earlier essays about the Asch conformity study of the 1950s. This is where one dupe is placed in a group of confederates -- those in on the subterfuge -- and they are as a group made to evaluate the measure of a line. The three lines are clearly longer or shorter than the others; but when the group as a whole declares the wrong line to be the longest, far more often than not the naive person will go along with the group. Asch found that if just one person deviated from consensus that the group will lose its hold, otherwise strengthened by unanimity, over the subject.
Coates is the deviating one, outspoken in his need to state the truth, to be an honest witness. His detractors are concerned, whether consciously or more instinctively, that he will disturb their unanimity and encourage others not only to see the reality in front of them but to report on it, too. That's why we've seen so many quarters slash at Coates this past week. They don't want him to be a herald. But I've seen lots of comments from everyday people saying that they were keen to read his book.
I think Coates will move the needle, and that terrifies some folks.
Media bias has gone wild. Thanks for posting. I'm so glad he's speaking out.
Thanks for reading, Diana.
What’s been going on these past two weeks in the media is ultra-alarming. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Maybe there is a point where we will understand that the extremist who has a book in their backpack is the one who is right and all the “normal” and so called reasonable people are the ones who are wrong. Just because you might be surrounded by people who hold your views, doesn’t mean those views are moral. We get so comfortable in our thinking. There is a certitude that comes with being in lockstep with the majority. It takes courage, maybe desperation, to speak out against the views of the majority.
The thing about Dokoupil's comment about the backpack is that he prefaced that by stripping Coates of all of his accolades. I saw a brief clip of what I'm sure is a longer interview of Coates with Trevor Noah, and Coates told Noah that he wasn't offended by that tack because he doesn't think of the awards as "him". Fair enough, and I understand where he's coming from; but what Dokoupil was doing was reducing him for the audience so that they could see him not as an award-winning and thoughtful author but as a shorn Black man, now attributed with "extremist" ideas. Dokoupil was transforming Coates into a ragtag terrrorist with this rhetorical technique. And it's important that he did this right out of the gate -- he knew he needed to do this.
As for your note about conformity, I've mentioned in earlier essays about the Asch conformity study of the 1950s. This is where one dupe is placed in a group of confederates -- those in on the subterfuge -- and they are as a group made to evaluate the measure of a line. The three lines are clearly longer or shorter than the others; but when the group as a whole declares the wrong line to be the longest, far more often than not the naive person will go along with the group. Asch found that if just one person deviated from consensus that the group will lose its hold, otherwise strengthened by unanimity, over the subject.
Coates is the deviating one, outspoken in his need to state the truth, to be an honest witness. His detractors are concerned, whether consciously or more instinctively, that he will disturb their unanimity and encourage others not only to see the reality in front of them but to report on it, too. That's why we've seen so many quarters slash at Coates this past week. They don't want him to be a herald. But I've seen lots of comments from everyday people saying that they were keen to read his book.
I think Coates will move the needle, and that terrifies some folks.
I just bought the audiobook. The Message. I will be listening over the coming days.
Awesome. I hope it’s a rewarding read.