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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.

Some Friday Fun: Race and the Electric Slide

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Jul 11 2008, 6:25 PM ET Comment

Man, I always tell folks that there's nothing pure about being black. Turns out the Electric Slide was created by a white guy. But hey, there's no Stax without Duck Dunn and Steve Cropper, no Run-DMC without Rick Rubin. Marvin Gaye didn't write the national anthem, but he owns it all the same. All your anthems are belonging to us. Know what I'm saying? We don't write the music that makes the country, we just make the music funky. Anyway, with that in mind it's worth watching the video below, especially the middle to the end. So much beautiful to be said about race in all that. But I'll leave that to my lovely commenters.



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