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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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Like school on Christmas Day...

By Ta-Nehisi Coates

Jan 26 2009, 4:44 PM ET Comment

Roland Burris has no class:

"If there was no Martin Luther King Jr. and no Roland Burris, there would be no Barack Obama in the White House today," Burris said to cheers at a Rainbow PUSH Coalition breakfast in Chicago. "We must recognize, friends, that we all stand on each other's shoulders."
I have a visceral dislike of people who feel the need to credit themselves. Go pass some fucking legislation, Senator. Go out there and do your job. Surprise somebody. Make something out of that damn appointment. And then kick ass in 2010. Shake up the world, Senator. We'll all be calling you a fucking prophet soon enough.


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