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Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates - Ta-Nehisi Coates is a senior editor for The Atlantic, where he writes about culture, politics, and social issues for TheAtlantic.com and the magazine. He is the author of the memoir The Beautiful Struggle. More

Born in 1975, the product of two beautiful parents. Raised in West Baltimore—not quite The Wire, but sometimes ill all the same. Studied at the Mecca for some years in the mid-’90s. Emerged with a purpose, if not a degree. Slowly migrated up the East Coast with a baby and my beloved, until I reached the shores of Harlem. Wrote some stuff along the way.

Bill Clinton Is Marion Barry

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Jan 25 2008, 10:12 AM ET Comment

Well as I saw him seven years ago. Man I'm getting old. Anyway the piece basically looks at Clinton as a more competent Marion Barry.

The Essence:

Both men are from the South and were raised poor by single mothers. Both have had their potentially impressive careers marred by an inability to manage their appetites for lust. And both are the bane of white conservatives and Washington's elite. Barry was despised by the black upper crust of D.C.'s Gold Coast, which dismissed him as an unsophisticated �Bama just as Georgetown socialites snubbed Clinton as trailer trash. Clinton left the country in vastly better shape than Barry left the District, but both have been awarded a moral pass from people who specialize in offering redemption to wayward souls.

Man, I remember how much fun I had writing this piece. I was depressed as hell, playing Everquest 18 hours a day. Besides basic functions of fathering and biology, all I did was write. Props to Stephanie Mencimer for helping this piece come to life. Anyway, enough nostalgia



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