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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.

It was all a dream

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Sep 23 2008, 2:59 PM ET Comment

Kenyatta just called and told me the blog made The Approval Matrix, New York Magazine's "deliberately oversimplified guide to who falls where on our taste hierarchies." I would love to play low-key and act like this isn't a big deal. But you guys know me well--I'm all Thanksgiving, lazy Sundays and hot July.

Still, when I was 12, and imagining a day when I could laugh about getting chased by North and Pulaski or dissed by yet another Tamika , I didn't imagine it like this. I thought I'd be smoother, richer and taller. I got the taller part right, at least. Of course, I also thought I'd be feted by girls with fat nameplate earrings, tennis skirts and hot pink Air Maxes. Instead I'm here on this ordinary day doing laundry and defusing rumors of my son brushing his teeth with cleaning products. It is grand, isn't it?


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