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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.

Women who date the "wrong" men

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Aug 20 2008, 1:00 PM ET Comment

Slate takes on that stupid-ass story about the pill causing women to choose the wrong guy. Ugh. Our lives are filled with chatter about women who pick the wrong guy, but I never hear much about dudes who date the wrong girl. I used to like to note that every girl I had ever loved had significant Daddy issues as a way of highlighting the crisis of black fatherhood. Then one day Kenyatta, while reading a blog entry where I'd made that argument, offered a different interpretation, "Uhm, maybe your just on some Captain Save-A-Ho shit."

Basically. The truth was that I'd known plenty of women with healthy relationships with their fathers. Funny how I was never attracted to any of them. Funnier how I never see articles about why so many men enjoy the company of crazy women. Anyway, I've got a theory: A lot of these stories about women not knowing what's good for them are actually authored by jerks who've convinced themselves that they're "nice guys" who've been overlooked. This extends across the spectrum. Hip-hop has elevated self-serving whining about gold-diggers into quasi-art. Of course the same artist will turn around and brag about his hit it and quit it pimp mentality. The shallowness of men is yawn-inducing. The shallowness of women is a national crisis.



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