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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.

Quote of the Day

By Ta-Nehisi Coates
Sep 3 2010, 1:00 PM ET Comment

I've blogged about this before, but every year I keep coming back to Self-Reliance, if for different reasons. Lately, it's been to reflect on what I truly want to write about, and what I really hope to achieve. So this part at the beginning has been with me this week:

The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray.

That really is it. That's my life. Or I hope to make it so. It's weird because I'm liberal, but in so many ways I feel almost--almost--uninterested in society. I hope to be selfish, to be mostly interested in my particular eye, and whatever particular ray falls upon it. 

The other day, Breakerbaker said Faulkner was "self-indulgent in the best possible way" and I thought that is really what I hope to be--self-indulgent in the best way possible.


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