Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

oh, oh, oh, Hey there and welcome back to Rootless the show for those of us who realize that we live in crazy times, that we need

every bit of wit and courage we can muster, and that dumb complacent Jews, historically speaking,

are never the ones who survive.

And this week's episode is precisely such a story of taking way too long to realize something that should have been obvious,

namely that one of America's most revered beloved public intellectuals, a man compared

to James Baldwin and lauded for his moral courage and clarity was nothing more than a good old fashion self-involved two-bit race hustler.

Talking of course about the author Tanahisei Coates and soon I'll be joined by my friend

the inimitable Cal Markowitz to discuss how and why

coats fooled so many Americans and so so many American Jews for so so long.

But before we could get to Carol, let us turn our attention with the talented Mr. Coates. Even if you haven't read his previous masterworks like

between the world and me or we were eight years in power

which we will soon discuss you probably heard Panahisee Coates his name a lot these

last couple of weeks his new new book, The Message, is a travelogue of sorts. He visits

Senegal, South Carolina, and Israel. What did our generation's moral and intellectual giant discover on his 10-day visit

to the most promised land, sponsored by the way by Palestinian advocacy groups?

I'll let Tanahisi himself do the talk.

In one typical scene in the book, he relates how his group sought to visit Jerusalem's

temple mountain and was delayed by Israeli soldiers. Was it that we had cameras?

He writes.

Was it that our guide was Jordanian?

No justifications were given.

...