David Remnick en Ta-Nehisi Coates over Obama

Biograaf David Remnick (The Bridge - De brug) in gesprek met Ta-Nehisi Coates over Obama bij de New York Public Library.

Het volledige gesprek (ca. 73 minuten) is op de site van de NYPL te bekijken.

Obama’s election as the first African-American President came at the end of a personal journey that intersected with the history of race in American politics.

• What does it mean for America, 150 years since the commencement of the Civil War to have a black president?
• What was it about Obama that allowed him to break this barrier?
• Is Obama a symbol of how much the country has changed, or is he changing the country himself.
• What separated him, historically and personally, from generations of civil-rights leaders and other black politicians?
• How, as a writer and as a politician, did he go about making his personal story emblematic of the American story?

These are just some of the questions examined in The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama that will be explored in a discussion between David Remnick and Ta-Nehisi Coates.