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Yeah that article was very unfair against Coates.
There are indeed DNC neoliberals who do use racial and gender based idpol in a cynical manner in order to shut down discussions about economic inequality. Ta-Nehisi Coates isn't one of those people. Sure, the DNC idpol faction wants to believe that Coates is one of them but Coates is not.
Coates is a journalist whose line of inquiry now has him performing many of the roles of an historian and a good historian is not obligated to make predictions for the sake of pleasing anyone. Furthermore, Coates has never said that white supremacy is the only problem in our society. Coates says (and I agree with him) that too many Americans of all racial backgrounds and political leanings forget about or downplay the power of white supremacy in American life. Ironically, this editorial, by West, buttresses the conservative argument that Coates is just the parochial black-columnist flavor of the month. Coates is a brilliant writer and he writes very well on the topic of white supremacy and he happens to be a person who our society considers to be black. No one would says that a Catholic or Protestant is incapable of writing a history of the Thirty Years' War and yet, there is this lingering skepticism that black people cannot objectively write about how black folks are treated by our broader, white society. Sadly, West contributed to this misguided belief about black intellectuals.
Also (and this is such an elementary fact that it should not have to be repeated), Coates voted for Bernie Sanders in the damn primaries. He didn't endorse Bernie because he doesn't believe in doing endorsements. West makes it sound as if Coates is Amanda Marcotte, Jonathan Chait or Joy Reid. West makes it sound like Coates was measuring the windows in his future DC. office on November 7th, 2016 and fielding offers for lucrative, no show jobs that he'd be starting after the first Clinton term was over.
West also took issue with Coates describing the Obama years as "good negro government." For one thing, Coates is quoting a speech from a over a century ago. Second, Coates said that Obama dashed the white surpemacists' hopes and conducted an administration that history will remember as being better than average. The white supremacists wanted him to be drinking whiskey out of his shoe and instead Barack Obama frustrated the white supremacists by embodying all those virtues of propriety that the white supremacists claim to care about and that they claim are absent among people of color. To believe that Coates fully agreed with and endorsed every single thing that the Obama administration did would be foolish and would be inaccurate commentary.
Leftists need to listen to Coates so we can stop losing Democratic primaries. The center-left neolibs may not govern well for poor and middle class black folks but they are savvy and know how to engage black primary voters and win votes. Let's listen to Coates because he is one of us and our future revolutions will require an ability to reckon with white supremacy and all its far reaching effects.
There are indeed DNC neoliberals who do use racial and gender based idpol in a cynical manner in order to shut down discussions about economic inequality. Ta-Nehisi Coates isn't one of those people. Sure, the DNC idpol faction wants to believe that Coates is one of them but Coates is not.
Coates is a journalist whose line of inquiry now has him performing many of the roles of an historian and a good historian is not obligated to make predictions for the sake of pleasing anyone. Furthermore, Coates has never said that white supremacy is the only problem in our society. Coates says (and I agree with him) that too many Americans of all racial backgrounds and political leanings forget about or downplay the power of white supremacy in American life. Ironically, this editorial, by West, buttresses the conservative argument that Coates is just the parochial black-columnist flavor of the month. Coates is a brilliant writer and he writes very well on the topic of white supremacy and he happens to be a person who our society considers to be black. No one would says that a Catholic or Protestant is incapable of writing a history of the Thirty Years' War and yet, there is this lingering skepticism that black people cannot objectively write about how black folks are treated by our broader, white society. Sadly, West contributed to this misguided belief about black intellectuals.
Also (and this is such an elementary fact that it should not have to be repeated), Coates voted for Bernie Sanders in the damn primaries. He didn't endorse Bernie because he doesn't believe in doing endorsements. West makes it sound as if Coates is Amanda Marcotte, Jonathan Chait or Joy Reid. West makes it sound like Coates was measuring the windows in his future DC. office on November 7th, 2016 and fielding offers for lucrative, no show jobs that he'd be starting after the first Clinton term was over.
West also took issue with Coates describing the Obama years as "good negro government." For one thing, Coates is quoting a speech from a over a century ago. Second, Coates said that Obama dashed the white surpemacists' hopes and conducted an administration that history will remember as being better than average. The white supremacists wanted him to be drinking whiskey out of his shoe and instead Barack Obama frustrated the white supremacists by embodying all those virtues of propriety that the white supremacists claim to care about and that they claim are absent among people of color. To believe that Coates fully agreed with and endorsed every single thing that the Obama administration did would be foolish and would be inaccurate commentary.
Leftists need to listen to Coates so we can stop losing Democratic primaries. The center-left neolibs may not govern well for poor and middle class black folks but they are savvy and know how to engage black primary voters and win votes. Let's listen to Coates because he is one of us and our future revolutions will require an ability to reckon with white supremacy and all its far reaching effects.
