In this YouTube interview, Dennis Prager talks with conservative commentator Candace Owens about her new book, Blackout. Owens expresses confidence that the New York Times will eventually review the book, citing its strong sales. Prager and Owens critique contemporary left‑wing cultural narratives, including Ta‑Nehisi Coates, Ibram X. Kendi, and the concept of "White Fragility." Owens argues that statements such as "all whites are racist" are themselves racist, contending that assigning collective blame mirrors the very racism they condemn. The conversation shifts to Owens' Blexit movement, which encourages Black Americans to leave the Democratic Party. Owens describes her strategic, confrontational approach—eschewing politeness for factual confrontation—and highlights the high rates of father absence in Black communities as a cultural factor. When asked about debating leftist intellectuals, Owens says she has offered debates, but many decline, accusing her of clout‑chasing. She mentions past debates with figures like Marc Lamont Hill and rejects debating fellow conservatives such as Larry Elder. Throughout, the interview underscores Owens' belief that the left’s narrative is false, that media and politics are biased against conservatives, and that her book aims to expose these dynamics.
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Tanahisi Coates. I mean, to think that the New York Times— I wonder if they'll even review your book. You know, uh, Candace Owens, of course, is my guest. Do you think they'll review your book?
I mean, it would be so pointedly absurd if they didn't. And I mean, there's just no tricks they can pull. Some people were like, oh, they might try to leave you off the list. I was like, 90,000 copies sold on Amazon alone. I mean, that's not even separate from Barnes Noble and everywhere else. So I feel pretty optimistic that they will, and that they just, you know, at a certain point, at a certain amount of number of books, they just have to do what's right if they want to be taken seriously. Not that anyone's ever accused the New York Times of wanting to be taken seriously.
Right, well, they do want to be taken seriously. They have no reason to expect it, but they do. So yeah, well, in any event, I could actually, Do you know, Candace, I'm not kidding, if somebody paid me, and I don't mean an exorbitant sum, but I'd have to be paid for my time, write the review that you expect the New York Times to write on Candace Owens' book, I could write the review. No, I would, because I know what they would— it is not possible to think that you and Ta-Nehisi Coates or Zombi, Ibram X. Kendi, if I have his name right, or the White Fragility folks, you can't both be right. Either 2 and 2 is 4 or it's 5. And have you read, and I don't expect that you have, but have you read or know about White Fragility?
I know about the book White Fragility, but I have not read it because I'm trying to maintain my brain cells.
So, okay, fine. Anyways, so this, this notion First of all, how do you react to the notion all whites are racist?
I mean, it's, it's just, it's even that sentence is racist. I mean, think of it again, going back to the definition of racism, assigning attributes to entire groups of people based on their race. So a statement like all whites are racist is actually a racist statement. Um, all whites are privileged is a racist statement. And it's just so frustrating that it just took a couple of decades for people to completely forget what racism is. And to think that somehow if you flip it on its head it is no longer racism. And it is. You know, that is the exercise. If you said a sentence, I always say remove the word white and put Blacks. And how does that sentence make you feel? Right? All Blacks are racist. That is a right— people would freak out, you know. When I see these articles in BuzzFeed, white people need to just shut up. Imagine if that same article said Black people need to just shut up. The world would explode. They would say it was racist. So why have we suddenly arrived into a society that permits that sort of language if it is spoken against white people? This is supposed to be somewhat some retribution from the times of slavery? I mean, you are demanding white people that never held slaves pay black people that were never slaves? And that is supposed to make you feel good? And that does not feel like an injustice? You know, people miss the forest for the trees here. And it is not, it is almost not their fault. Because there is a mass brainwashing going on, the psychological conditioning that is happening because of the media, which is working with the politicians, who can no longer discern between right and wrong, right? We used to agree, the left and the right, on some basic concepts of right and wrong, right? This was never up for debate. It is wrong to loot. It is wrong to riot. It would be crazy to say defund the police. Now, we do not agree on those things. See, they always have a, "But it can be right." You know, it is okay to loot and riot if you are just doing a movement emotional, um, and upset. It's okay to attack a business owner's store, um, because of, you know, past oppressions that you never lived through. And that's a scary place to be in when adults and people in places of power can no longer discern between basic concepts of goodness and righteousness and wrongness.
That's right. So you are leading Blexit, Black exit from the Democratic Party. And let me tell you my reaction and have you react to it if you would. I think you're making headway and I don't live in a world of rose-colored glasses, but I have a sense that there is more openness to the question, has the Democratic Party been good for me and for other Blacks? This is— it is more capable of being heard today than at any time in my life.
Yes, and that's exactly right. And, you know, I really do think that I've made an impact there because I was extremely strategic. People didn't understand what I was doing when I first arrived on the scene. Not everybody is PragerU who understood the importance of the, you know, the cultural war and the battle that I was fighting. But I was very intentional in each of my actions. And there were times people were like, you know, this is not the way to be a conservative. You know, I have been loud. I have been in their face, and I have been questioning their narrative unapologetically. And that is the difference between some older generations who are much whiter than I. Dr. Ben Carson, he is a literal neurosurgeon who separated conjoined twins. You have got Dr. Condoleezza Rice, but they were so polite that it allowed people to just— they would never respond when somebody called them an Uncle Tom or a coon. They would just take it. And I realized that that I think that was the mistake, is that we have to fight back as Black conservatives. We have to show them that we're not here to apologize for being right. And I've done that. I've pushed back because I also realized that the Black American condition for many people, when you're talking about a group of people that has a 77% rate of father absence, father absence leads to a disrespectful group of people who don't respond well to authority. You've never had that staple in your life, right? So being kind and trying to show them statistics doesn't really work. I've approached this with a different attitude. You know, they don't respect me and I'm not here to try to earn their friendship or their respect. I'm here to say the facts and I'm not going to apologize for saying facts. And in the process, I happen to have earned a lot of respect for standing up there and saying it and not backing down.
Have you made any offers to the Ta-Nehisi Coates types to debate?
Yes. I mean, please, I have offered up me and then they say, oh, you're just— the clout chasing is their thing now. The favorite thing to say, you're just trying to become, you know, get into the room. And I say, okay, well then take someone else. Take Larry Elder, which no one would do. I wouldn't do that. I would never try to debate Larry Elder. We're on the same side, right?
That's right.
Man's walking in, it's like, you stay away from that debate. Um, and Larry's been doing that his whole life, uh, trying to debate the Alex Jones people. Exactly. They don't do it because they know they're lying. And if you know you're lying, it's not wise to step into a room with the truth, right? Lies need to hide themselves. Truth, the truth doesn't. There's not a single leftist that I am afraid to debate. Um, because, and you know, I've had some on my show, the ones that are willing. I mean, I had Marc Lamont Hill on the show and you know, I watched that for him. You know, people were saying, oh, you embarrassed us. This didn't make sense. But that's the reason is that because I'd love to have the conversation because I want to expose their lies, but they're not willing to because their platform dies once they get exposed.
All right, let's have one more segment. Uh, you could do this for a long time. She's remarkable. The book is remarkable. Blackout, Candace Owens, at DennisPrager.com.
