I don't want to dilly dally with a long intro, because I'm interviewing Tannahassee Coates,

journalist and blockbuster bestselling author of Between the World and Me and The Message,

and our conversation was so much more wide-ranging than

I could have ever planned for. We talked about Palestine, we talked about incarceration, we talked

about racism, we talked about Shakespeare. But the dynamic, the back and forth, it was alive.

There were a lot of times where I was the one who was put on the spot and it was a lot of fun. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Downstream as much as I did.

Tanahasi Coat, thank you so much for joining us on Downstream. Thanks for having me.

We were having a lively discussion before the camera started rolling.

Very, very quickly, who's been the better exporter of racism over the century?

Yeah.

Okay. So, you know what?

I was just sitting here thinking.

So I'm going to amend what I said about France because I'm sure there are some French friends

who would pull out, you know, some of my Algerian people

who will probably, or Moroccan people will probably pull something out.

Having said that, having said that, I am fairly confident, fairly confident that in terms of

footprint and exploitation of racism, America is peerless.

I mean, I'm sorry, right?

As a Brit, we originated some of this stuff.

Of course, of course.

I mean, we are a byproduct of like, of the UK.

You wouldn't have the, like, you know, Virginia slave codes without us.

...