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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.

Especially The Blacks And The Jews Pt.521223467

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
May 9 2008, 11:07 AM ET Comment

dNa has a nice post about the Andrew Charles case. As dNa suggests in the comment section, maybe we'll get into it at the panel. Any some folks may see this as a further rupture in the holy coalition between ththe blacks of Europe (the Jews) and the Jews of America (the blacks). Not the kid. Instead, I see a great unifying beauty in the following:

In any case, pursuing a Grand Jury indictment in the case has proven difficult, because Jews have their own code when it comes to talking to the police.

One source suggested the Orthodox community was taking a page from the rap world's "stop snitching" handbook. But it was actually lifted directly from the Code of Jewish Law.

"The Hebrew word is mesira, which means basically you are not allowed to be an informant," said Rabbi Shea Hecht, a well-known figure in Crown Heights. "In essence, I am not allowed to snitch, period."

Of course they won't snitch! They are an insular community, as discrete from larger society in many ways as the poorest inner city, and they have the own notions of justice and punishment. This is just how humans are--but to hear the media tell it, black people are predisposed towards criminality and that's why they won't always talk to the police.

It's always amazing to me how the foibles and mores of black folks are always seen through the lense of pathology and dysfunction. The Blue Wall Of Silence is seen as some sort of mystic force. Omerata is some old-school honorable isht. But "Stop Snitching" is just senseless, alien, thuggism. It's like, "How dare you blacks actually be as flawed as the rest of the human race!"



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