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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.

Billy Dee Williams warns Toby Keith, " Only I speak for the blacks."

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Aug 5 2008, 3:01 PM ET Comment

You can't write this stuff. Dig Toby Keith waxing philosophically on Obama's blackness. Despite posting about his new song, I really have nothing against Toby Keith. I think Shock and Ya'll is kind of funny. Besides, there's no blacker name then "Toby." Still, one of the great spectacles of this campaign has been watching people who (as I've said before) likely can't remember the last time they've had dinner with a black family, holding forth on the intricacies and mores of black America. Thanks guys. We really need you to explain our culture for us.






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