The recent episode with author Ta-Nehisi Coates on “CBS Mornings” shows precisely how white progressives view those who happen to have a little more melanin in their skin. Apparently, some in CBS News’ newsroom had a problem with how reporter Tony Dokoupil handled his interview with the controversial author about his most recent book.

The problem? Dokoupil had the temerity as a White man to challenge Coates, a Black man, and push back against some of his assertions while daring to ask tough questions. Some of Dokoupil’s colleagues gave him a White progressive tongue lashing during a conference call, one of them even telling him to “shut the f***” up.”

Even further, it was later revealed that the network had created a script for Coates’ interview that was vetted by the network’s Race and Culture Department.

Here’s a question: Why would it be inappropriate for a Black author to face tough questions?

Apparently, I’m not the only one who observed the racism that is at work here. Author and linguist John McWhorter penned an op-ed for the New York Times in which he pointed out that the attitudes displayed by CBS News’ employees “reflects a pernicious image of Black people, and Black men in particular, that first gained traction in 2020 and 2021, when antiracist virtue signaling too often transmogrified into an extreme grotesque.”

I’d actually argue that these attitudes gained traction long before 2021. White progressives have acted as if Black Americans need to be coddled for decades.

McWhorter also pointed out how White progressives tend to demean Black people under the guise of protecting them. “Acting as though Black people can’t hold their own in a challenging discussion — as though they can’t speak up for themselves and therefore need others to speak up for them — isn’t antiracist, it’s demeaning,” he wrote.

The author put it perfectly: "Blackness is not weakness. We need to stop coddling sane, self-sufficient Black people — like Coates — and move on."

He also pointed out that “If it had been a white author in the hot seat that day, I find it impossible to imagine that anyone would have sounded any internal alarms.”

There’s a reason for that, dear reader.

The fact is that progressives believe White people are superior, which means they are better equipped to handle tough questions than Black people, who they view as their Negro pets who need white saviors to protect them from having to defend their views.

This coddling is not only unnecessary – it is racist, plain and simple. Those promoting these attitudes are every bit as racist as the David Dukes and Richard Spencers of the world – except they are more dangerous because they believe – or pretend to believe – that they are somehow helping Black Americans.

This is why progressive media and politicians have long portrayed Black people as helpless victims going back to the days of slavery and Jim Crow. They love to tell long and tragic tales of slaves being mistreated. These people adore discussing how runaway slaves were eventually captured by slave catchers and how the Ku Klux Klan terrorized Black people after they were freed.

What they always seek to avoid is the many slaves who not only fled to freedom, but killed the slave catchers sent to retrieve them. They are loath to even acknowledge the many Freedmen who fired back at hooded racists seeking to harm them. Their history books do not mention how many KKK members died or were injured by brave Black men and women who took up arms to defend themselves.

Even today, they wish to make it appear as if intelligent Black Americans like McWhorter and, yes, Coates are the exception instead of the rule. Contrary to what the racists on the hard left want to believe, Black people are just as capable of forming their opinions as everyone else.

The history White progressives embrace is largely what informs their racist views of Black Americans, which is why they believe that they are helping us by coddling us. But it is a self-serving belief. These folks not only think Black people are inferior, they react to this belief by using it to position themselves as our saviors. They do not believe that Black people have agency, nor do they want to acknowledge the many accomplishments Black folks have made throughout this nation’s history.

Instead, they make our history about themselves under the guise of being “antiracist.” The bottom line is that if these people truly want to be antiracist, they need to look in the mirror and start viewing us as equals.