ta-nehisi coates
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Whiteness Is Useless Without the Nigger
“What would white people do without the nigger?” It’s a question that courses and bleeds through Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “The First White President.” It’s never asked explicitly, but it lurks beneath each point, ensconced in the piece’s premise: a fundamental and connective marrow. And it’s been with me since Sunday afternoon after I visited the National…
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The Root 100 No. 1s: Ta-Nehisi Coates Wanted to Be ‘the Baddest Motherfucking Writer on the Planet’
It is a rare piece of long-form journalism that breaks the internet. But that’s exactly what happened when Ta-Nehisi Coates’ keen, decisive reportage, “The Case for Reparations,” dropped in June 2014, compelling the editors at The Root to give him that year’s No. 1 spot. Part of his The Root 100 bio read: Two years…
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Ryan Coogler, Michael B. Jordan, Ta-Nehisi Coates Team Up for New Movie Wrong Answer
Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan are building on the #BlackBoyMagic they brought to the screen in Fruitvale Station and Creed (and undoubtedly will in the upcoming Black Panther) by teaming up for a new film project, about an education scandal, called Wrong Answer. Coogler will direct the film, which will be produced by Coogler,…
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Harvard Confronts Its Ties to Slavery; Ta-Nehisi Coates Calls for Reparations
Harvard University is the latest university to try to make amends with its slavery-tainted past. On Friday the storied university held a conference to explore the relationship between colleges and slavery, where university President Drew Faust said the school must confront its past to move forward. “Harvard was directly complicit in slavery from the college’s…
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Miffed, Tamron Hall Leaves Today, NBC
Tamron Hall, the first black woman to co-host “Today,” is leaving NBC and MSNBC despite a multimillion-dollar offer to stay and a pledge for an expanded role on other shows, official and unofficial sources said Wednesday. The network sought to replace Hall and co-host Al Roker, also a black journalist, on the “Today” show’s third…
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The Beautiful Struggle Against Racism
My uncle blamed everything on the white man. Global warming? It was the white man. Drugs destroying the community? Blame the white man. Football team lost? The white man was at fault. Uncle John was the kind of ghetto philosopher you’d find dropping knowledge in the barbershop. He’d walk in without an appointment and spit knowledge…
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Luke Cage: A Bulletproof Black Man in the Black Lives Matter Era
To deal with my anger over the seemingly unending number of black men and women killed at the hands of those tasked with the duty to serve and protect, I often play N.W.A’s “F—k tha Police” to cope—except I don’t play it loud. I’m afraid the boys in blue (not the Crips; I’m cool with…
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On Ta-Nehisi Coates And The Very Real Danger Of "Writing While Black"
I wouldn’t dare compare my level of popularity to the very real (and much scarier) fame Ta-Nehisi Coates possesses. But when reading his “On Homecomings” yesterday — where he lamented that he was forced to back out of buying his dream house in Brooklyn because of safety concerns stemming from his address being widely publicized — two recent…
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Five Great Alternatives Black America Should Seriously Consider For President
As Barack Obama’s second presidential term winds to a close, Black Americans are contemplating the sad prospect of holding their noses when they cast their votes for the next Commander-in-Chief. Instead of choosing the lesser of the remaining evils, here are five choices you should consider for the next Black President of the United States:…