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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.
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Boomers and race...

By Ta-Nehisi Coates

Jan 16 2009, 11:56 PM ET Comment

Fanita asks:

I hate to ask this, but I am anyway. Is this a white people thing? I'm a black Gen Xer with pre-Boomer parents, and I just don't understand any of the animosity expressed in these comments. Any black people relate to this? I know I don't.
Bingo. Well sorta. We have our generational angst--a lot of us wish the CIRC would get lost. But we don't see that as the sum total of our folks' generation--it's just a particular group that lost their mind. A lot of us worship people like Malcolm and Martin. Hip-hop wouldn't exist without Parliament and James Brown. And who doesn't love Muhammad Ali? I think Dave Chappelle's Block Party can't touch Wattstax, and so on...


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