This Essay was posted on 5/1/2025.
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates is more than a memoir about a trip to Dakar, an encounter in South Carolina, and a trip to Palestine. Woven in these experiences and recollections about racial and ethnic discrimination is a story with a message. Coates tells his story to you, the reader, and it is up to you, the reader to hear the message, which could be different for everyone.
The book explains in clear terms the impact on Palestinians living in Israel and occupied territories. Palestinians living in Israel have limited rights, and those living in Gaza and the West Bank are restricted even further.
Coates compares Israel’s treatment of Palestinians with our own treatment of Blacks as slaves and then as citizens. He also makes comparisons with European colonizers in Africa and Asia who generally victimized indigenous people.
The colonization narratives made me rethink my two-state view for the Israeli/Palestinian situation. Now I see that you cannot have a true, democratic government unless voting and living and running for office are not restricted by race or religion or cultural differences. There must be one country unhindered by racial or ethnic identity. Doing otherwise will only perpetuate conflict.
Finally, I see the democratic changes formed in the 1960’s disappearing in the US today as we move toward a society that has different rules for rich white people and more restrictions on minorities, LGBTQ, and non-Christians. Before I decide on Israel and Palestine, I need to fix my own house first.