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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.

The NAACP threatens boycott of the networks

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Dec 18 2008, 3:00 PM ET Comment

And I bet the networks are shivering in their boots. These guys are late to the party. I started my own boycott months ago--not because I wanted more black people on TV, but because I wanted TV to suck less. There are some good aspects of segregation--namely, you get to equate bad television with white people, in much the same manner that folks equate hip-hop with black people. But the NAACP's call for more shows like "Moesha" and "The Steve Harvey Show," increasingly makes that sort of high-minded stand untenable. Fucking civil rights people. They ruin it for everyone.

Seriously though, this sort of racial head-counting reminds me that all wars waged by black people, are not my wars.


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