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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.

One Last Thought On Steele

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Mar 4 2009, 2:00 PM ET Comment

Any black people here starting to actually get embarrassed for the guy? You know like how any time a black guy fails publicly, you feel like it's your failure too? I read this Politico story, and for the first time felt that old twinge. I'm alright with the brothers laughing at him. I'm alright with other liberals laughing at him. But I don't actually want the GOP's first major effort at ending the Southern Strategy to be a comic disaster. I've never thought that it was good thing for the country, or for black people, to have all of us on one side. This could get ugly really, really fast. I, as much as anyone, should probably remember that.

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