Mapping Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Defection from the “Obama Hypnosis”

Earlier today the Due Dissidence podcast posted the following a 30-minute video in which hosts Russ Dobular and Keaton Weiss explore the evolution of Ta-Nehisi Coates – from “the Obama administratuon’s favorite essayist” to an outspoken critic of both the Obama legacy and the Biden/Harris complicity in the Israeli regime’s genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza. As one commemator notes on YouTube, “It took Coates long enough, but at least he got there. If only others can defect from the Obama hypnosis.”

Coates is a writer and social commemtator I’ve come to greatly appreciate and respect, and I’m currently reading his 2024 book, The Message.





See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Ta-Nehisi Coates: Quote of the Day – November 2, 2023
• Progressives and Obama
• The Lamentable Legacy of the Biden Administration

Related Off-site Links:
Ta-Nehisi Coates on Obama’s Legacy in a Trump World – Tim Miller (The Balwark, June 19, 2026).
Reckoning With Harris’ Silence On Gaza: An Interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates – The Majority Report (June 28, 2026).
Did Kamala Harris’s Silence on Gaza Cost Her the White House? – Ta-Nehisi Coates (Vanity Fair, June 15, 2026).
“I Don’t Get It!” Ta-Nehisi Coates Stunned by Centrist Democrats’ Opposition to Progressive Candidates – MS Now (June 27, 2026).
The Blood-and-Soil Nationalism That Killed Alex Pretti and Renee Good – Ta-Nehisi Coates (Vanity Fair, January 26, 2026).
Ta-Nehisi Coates Rips Ezra Klein’s Kirk Praise to Shreds – The Majority Report (September 17, 2025).
Is America More Racist Than Britain? An Interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates – Ash Sarkar (Novara Media, April 6, 2025).
Have We Missed The Message? An Interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates – Trevor Noan (What Now?, October 10, 2024).