In a new essay, Mychal Denzel Smith writes, “The white audience does not seek out black public intellectuals to challenge their worldview; instead they are meant to serve as tour guides through a foreign experience that the white audience wishes to keep at a comfortable distance.” Smith joins us to talk about how black writers from James Baldwin to Ta-Nehisi Coates consider the race of their readers – and about they can sometimes be muted by white gatekeepers – which he writes about in the current issue of Harper’s magazine.
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