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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.

A good way to fight black homophobia...

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Dec 4 2008, 10:40 AM ET Comment

...is to refer to black people as "the most homophobic racial group in America." Expect this to be about as effective as Barack Obama campaigning in the South and calling it "the most racist region of the country." It'd be true in the most reductive sense. Meanwhile the actual story on this isn't so reductive.

Among the conclusions--58 percent of all Dems think it's acceptable to have a baby outside of marriage, but only 39 percent of black Dems think so. 51 percent of all Dems think abortion is morally acceptable, only 37 percent of black Dems think so. 64 percent of Dems think sex between unmarried is acceptable, but only 40 percent of blacks do. 57 percent of all Dems think the death penalty is morally acceptable. Only 47 percent of blacks agree. What are you seeing here? Here's a hint--76 percent of all black dems attend church weekly, as compared with only 50 percent of nonblack Dems. Black Dems are actually more church-going than Republicans.

A zealous religiosity doesn't explain it all, but it explains a lot. More on that explanation later today.


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Ta-Nehisi Coates
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