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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.

More reasons for black people over 60 to zip it

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Jul 9 2008, 8:50 PM ET Comment

My Dad is gonna kill me. But here's Jesse--on Fox News no less--telling some other dude that he'd like to cut Obama's nuts out. Nice. I'm not even sure this hurts Obama in anyway. Even Jesse's own son condemned him. There is a certain strain of the civil right era that really just needs to have a Jack and Coke and call it a day. It's not that we aren't grateful. We so really are. But this is getting embarrassing...

UPDATE: Anyone who thinks this will hurt Obama's support among African-Americans can come meet me on 125th where I will present them a deed for the GW Bridge. I've obviously given my critique of that speech. I don't much care about "talking down" as much as I care about the literal truth of what Obama was saying. Also, given that I mostly like Obama's fatherhood bill, the actual speech is a minor issue for me. That said--unlike Jesse Sr.--I've got sense enough to not confuse my politics, with the politics of the black community. I'm a typical East-Coast, latte-sipping liberal, whereas most of my brethren are Southeners. Expect the difference between my personal politics and the rest of the black communities to roughly mirror the difference between any Chardonnay liberal and any other Southerners. The only difference, I guess, is I still love my people. Even when I think they're dead wrong. They're still my folk.



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