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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.

This is just frustration

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Oct 1 2008, 12:40 PM ET Comment

The most interesting part of all this is in the second video when McCain strongly intimates that some guy who goes to "Georgetown cocktail parties" isn't a conservative. This is the curse of essentalism, and any fan of hip-hop is familiar with it in the form of the cliche of "Keeping It Real." You start by claiming liberals aren't patriotic. Then you counter every claim made against you by dressing yourself in the garb of POW. By the end your claiming people who've been down with you for decades are actually fraudulent. Only you could possibly represent, decency and honor. There is a dictatorial quality to the whole thing.

Fortunately we still live in America, and that act right there, appeals to no one who didn't already believe you. This is what losers do when they're getting creamed--they get pissed at the refs for doing their job. If I didn't know any better, I'd say the McCain know that they're going to lose, and are basically just letting it rip now. Look at dude. He's not doing a single thing in those clips to help himself. He's just angry. He's just out control Can people please stop asking for Barack Obama to "get angry" now? It doesn't look good when McCain does it. It won't look any better when the black guy does it either.







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