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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.
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Call me totally naive....

By Ta-Nehisi Coates

Aug 25 2008, 12:00 PM ET Comment

...but I'm really still trying to wrap my head around this idea that people actually decide who they're going to vote for based on ads. I don't think I've ever seen an ad and went out and bought something because of it. An ad has made me decide to go investigate an item, but never to just purchase it sight unseen. Polls show I am wrong, but man are we in a civics hole when a significant number of people allow their votes to be decided by a television commercial.




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