ta-nehisi coates
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From an Ex-Neoliberal: Why Ta-Nehisi Coates Keeps Talking About White Supremacy
I love Cornel West. Part of the reason I am a fan of his is that, before my nonfame and lack of fortune at The Root, I taught a college-level course called “Race as an Economic Construct.” The idea of the course was to eliminate the subjectivity of race theory by explaining race in America…
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Watch: Cornel West Gets Real About His Beef With Ta-Nehisi Coates and Barack Obama: ‘We Got to Keep Standards Up’
As a result of Cornel West’s public criticism of Ta-Nehisi Coates in the New York Times last month, we at The Root asked the good doctor over to our studios to have a word (this being Cornel West, many words) with me and senior reporter Terrell J. Starr. West is releasing the 25th-anniversary edition of…
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Cornel West Seems to Believe Ta-Nehisi Coates Is Writing From the Sidelines, but Sidelines Don’t Exist for Black People
I’m writing this from the third floor of the brownstone in Pittsburgh’s Northside that my wife and I have been renting for a year and a half now. I’m in a bedroom that has been repurposed as both my office and my de facto closet. My daughter’s bedroom is on the same floor, and the…
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Did Cornel West Come for Ta-Nehisi Coates?
A few months ago, I was at a Bernie Sanders rally in Birmingham, Ala., surrounded by white people excited to see their democratic socialist Santa Claus. After a mixtape filled with tunes by James Taylor, the Beatles and Bob Marley, a performance by a gospel choir and a short speech by the dynamic Nina Turner,…
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Ta-Nehisi Coates Talks Race, Trump and What’s Really Scary About America
Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of those people who always have something smart to say, because he’s actually really, really smart. Whether he’s reminding Americans that they elected the first white president or providing the cheat code for white liberals to explain to their kinfolk why they can’t say “nigger,” Coates is both quotable and relatable,…
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A Letter of Thanks to My Son Who Wants to Be Luke Cage This Halloween
Dear L.J., I bought this house a few years ago because I wanted you to have what I did not: childhood memories of a place to call home, a backyard and the feeling of security that an apartment never could provide. I, however, was not ready for the responsibility of homeownership. When the toilet runs…
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We Were 8 Years in Power Moves Ta-Nehisi Coates to Top of Black America’s Draft Board
On Jan. 21, 2004, Comedy Central’s groundbreaking Chappelle’s Show debuted the iconic “Racial Draft” sketch. In it, comedian Dave Chappelle imagined a draft in which each race selected and traded individuals to represent the race. The Asians drafted the Wu-Tang Clan, and Jews picked Lenny Kravitz. The concept quickly became an inside joke that still…
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Ta-Nehisi Coates Calls Out ‘The First White President’
Claim: Racism Made Trump; the Left Won’t Say It Blacks, Hispanics Are Third of Radio Audience NAHJ to Review Partnership With Calif. Group DACA Revocation Unpopular With Editorial Boards Omarosa Laughs Off Worries About Access to Trump ‘Jason Whitlock Doesn’t Care About Black People’ Back to ‘Explaining Indians to White People’ Slaying in India an…