When Ta-Nehisi Coates came to Evanston

...and we talked about race.

Last month Ta-Nehisi Coates came to Evanston Township High School. He was interviewed by Assistant Superintendent-Principal Marcus Campbell and queried by students. Approximately 2,000 people came to the school for this Family Action Network event. Close to 300 watched via live stream.

I appreciate the Q & A part of the program, which went about 32 minutes, as well as the "talk back", which went for another 32 minutes.

Why can't everyone use THAT WORD?: Many of us know the answer to that question too, but few of us have expressed it as eloquently as Mr. Coates does at the start of the Q & A.

The commenters of all ages during the "talk back" really give you a feeling about what some of our neighbors are concerned about and where they come from.

Mr. Coates is a journalist and author. He is a national correspondent for The Atlantic. His book Between the World and Me won the National Book Award for Non-Fiction in 2015. Coates is a MacArthur Fellowship recipient. Since 2016, Coates has written Marvel’s The Black Panther comic book.

To see the full talk October 18, 2017 talk at ETHS, check out the Family Action Network (FAN) website.

Krista Tippet talked to him this month at the Chicago Humanities Festival.