Coates should focus less on writing comic books (nothing wrong with that) and more on being able to trade ideological punches.

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Cornel West is right. You cannot equate Obama with Malcolm X. There is nothing similar about their message. They also chose different paths. Malcolm X was an activist and Obama was a politician. The missions were inherently going to be different. It seems that Coates is attempting to curry favor from Obama by equating him with a figure that is deified in a large portion of the black community.

West is also correct about the silence of the black elite with regards to issues effecting black America. It is why Obama was easily acceptable. Aside from race of course. Most of the black elite are comfortable remaining silent on the issue of race. Ambivalence is beneficial during their interactions with whites. After all it worked for Obama why can't it work for me? It is easier to demonstrate your racial bona fides by railing against Slavery and Jim Crow. In essence those are safe spaces with regard to racial discussions. It is much more difficult to discuss issues that currently effect minorities and poor people.


Blacks were mostly silent on Obama. There were a myriad of reasons for this but the primary reason relates to customs. Blacks have long had a problem with "airing out dirty laundry" in public. You are considered a betrayer of the race when you actively engage in such behavior.

Obama continued a number of policies that blacks would have criticized if they'd been continued by whites. The aforementioned drone policies are one and so are the policies that further enriched the wealthy. He also was largely silent on the plight of the poor. That's true.

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I don't disagree with anything you wrote.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

When it comes to Obama I'm torn. It never seemed like he was passionate about anything or had any fight in him. Even when you saw him clearly shaken about Sandy Hook and the church shooting he never went out and truly fought for the change he wanted.

I was sure we would see that fighter his 2nd term. By Year 6 I knew that guy wouldn't show up. Is it because he doesn't exist or was Obama playing thinking big picture? This country is still a majority white country and that won't change in our lifetime. If he baved like Trump or worse it would likely make it difficult for another minority to ascend to that office any time soon. He carried the responsibility of leading this country and representing minorities. That's a lot of weight to carry. While I wanted more I do understand that if Jackie Robinson behaves like Ali the experiment likely ends there. The way he carried himself will allow the majority to consider electing another minority. T

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

I'm whiter than the cliffs of Dover so I'm really speaking out of turn on all of this, but I don't begrudge being either pro- or anti-Coates. The learned helplessness of white supremacy that Coates preaches has to resonate with a lot of people, but if people don't want to simply accept that, how can I argue that?

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I see it as Obama is one of the most important presidents in our history but certainly not one of the best presidents.

I saw that Coates book on a bookshelf in the airport next to another book named Thanks Obama written by an Obama staffer. I thought to myself that if I was going to buy an Obama slurp piece, I'd rather read the entertaining one that might give a juicy detail. In the end I bought neither as Detroit is a one hour flight and I would hardly have busted open my M and M's by the time I would need to stop reading.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

I wonder if he realizes that he is shooting from within his glass house atop his own apparently comfortable ivory tower. To me his piece read like a less damning scolding from Thomas Sowell.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

What do we consider best? If we're talking top 15 or so I completely agree. He's probably somewhere in the middle of the pack but history will be kind to him.

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

You weren't alone as far as his 2nd term went. A number of people thought that also. They believed that he would become more of a fighter because he wasn't running for re election. I never believed that he had that in him. That is where guys like Jeremiah Wright came in. He used Jeremiah Wright in many respects also. When I looked at Obama's history I saw a that he was never passionate about that sort of thing. I also saw an opportunist that would use people to get ahead. Doesn't make him a bad guy either. Just didn't think he would make for a good President.

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MILWAUKEE-Asked restaurant host: "God, did you hear about Ta-Nehisi Coates twitter account?"
Host: "No."
Me: "Gone, deleted it"
Thought he would cry.

Is his Twitter avatar the chick from Bow Wow Wow?

Pretty interesting:

https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/50070

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

I don't have the desire to hear their one warmed over piece yet, but the comments are pretty comical and high handed

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Here's Coates and McWhorter together. Worth a listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXjfZkJ2qos

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

I watched about half an hour of that. I agree that Coates is unfairly labeled as a neoliberal, but the cheerleading for neoliberalism left a bad taste in my mouth. I think Coates's afropessimism and its implicit reinforcement of the status quo is being mistaken for neoliberalism. But again, if you believe as Coates does that racism and white supremacy are inestimable forces that can never be conquered, then what is anyone supposed to do? No wonder white NPR liberals love his writing so much: they get off on being told that everything both is and isn't their fault, that the illness can be diagnosed but never treated, the bad news is you're bad but the good news is you don't have to do anything about it.

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Makes life easier

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Afropessimism sells books.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Is that what Walt practices?

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Neoliberals buy books too.

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Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

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Well, I don't think that diatribe was really Prof. Loury cheerleading for neoliberalism as much as it was an acknowledgement of how much modern American pseudo-capitalism has improved standards of living in spite of its flaws and legitimate criticisms of the system. The truth is- and I'm self aware enough to recognize myself here- there is a certain irony to criticizing capitalism via an iPhone.

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Ecclesiastes 5:8

I'm an NPR liberal who thinks his writing is largely rubbish.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Last year, Clarence Page called him the flavor of the month and seemed neither impressed nor unimpressed.

I feel similarly to those guys on the podcast Joe cited. The mechanics of his writing are solid enough to make it a pleasant enough reading experience but the thoughts are so hollow. He is like a beautifully decorated cake that tastes bad. I can see why people could be tricked into thinking his work is important.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

What did you find hollow about his writings on housing policy discrimination.

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Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

NPR seems to be a Liberal Network but they all are!

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Happy Halloween!

Tuck opines in his new book.

Tuck is old enough to notice how humiliating it ought to be to contemporary intellectuals that they feel obligated to praise the intelligence of Ta-Nehisi Coates:

"‘Between the World and Me’ is an unusually bad book: poorly written, intellectually flabby, relentlessly shallow, and bigoted. No honest reader with an IQ over 100 could be impressed by it. One presumes that the moment America wakes up from its current fever, Coates’s memoir will be forgotten immediately, an embarrassing relic from an embarrassing time."-from the book


"that's gonna leave a mark"-Readers





YSWIDT

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"Change has come to Amerika."- TFG