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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.

Umbragefest--the Joe Scarborough edition

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Nov 6 2008, 9:21 AM ET Comment

I'd likely be more sympathetic to this impassioned plea, were it not coming from Scarborough. I agree with him on the merits, sorta. It's a great day for America whenever a lot of people participate in the process, no matter who wins. I also think that are quite of few of us writers on the left, or wherever, who would benefit by living somewhere else besides New York or  Washington, D.C. I don't think we always understand the diversity of the country. I'm talking beyond race, gender and sexual orientation. I think more of that understanding is better for us as writers, and is better for the debate in general. Furthermore, the idea that education makes you more enlightened is noxious.

That said, beware the man who castigates closed-minds, while taking time to celebrate the openness of his own. Seriously, I don't know how to take a plea for more intellectual subtlety and empathy across ideology, from a cat who routinely uses the Upper West Side and Georgetown as short-hand for liberal America.



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