Ta-Nehisi Coates’ We Were Eight Years in Power, a book about Barack Obama’s presidency and the tenacity of white supremacy, has captured the attention of many of us. One crucial question is why now in this moment has his apolitical pessimism gained such wide acceptance?
Coates and I come from a great tradition of the black freedom struggle. He represents the neoliberal wing that sounds militant about white supremacy but renders black fightback invisible. This wing reaps the benefits of the neoliberal establishment that rewards silences on issues such as Wall Street greed or Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and people.
The disagreement between Coates and me is clear: any analysis or vision of our world that omits the centrality of Wall Street power, US military policies, and the complex dynamics of class, gender, and sexuality in black America is too narrow and dangerously misleading. So it is with Ta-Nehisi Coates’ worldview.
That’s by Cornel West. It’s also the purest nonsense.
There is no grand philosophical difference here. All that is occurring is the young bull moving in to cover the cows while the old bull frets on the sidelines about how things used to be.
Palestinian lands? He means the ones which he thinks only Palestnians should live in. A land of racial homogeneity.
Hm. I wonder what’s his view of, say, French lands.
Just kidding. I don’t really.
“It’s also the purest nonsense.”
Understatement of the week there, Tim.
I’ve read a couple of Coates’ articles in The Atlantic for, you know, a glimpse into how the supposedly better informed and more enlightened from the BLM/Antifa crowd thinks, but it’s nothing more than the usual We-Are-Eternal-Victims boilerplate with the occasional 10-dollar word thrown in.
A whole book of it? All the whisky in Scotland…
One crucial question is why now in this moment has his apolitical pessimism gained such wide acceptance?
Has it?
West is just jealous that Coates is making more cash out of the same bullshit.
“it’s Neoliberal not fair Neoliberal that my life Neoliberal hasn’t turned Neoliberal out the way Neoliberal I think I deserve Neoliberal”
But whereas his forebears carried whiteness like an ancestral talisman, Trump cracked the glowing amulet open, releasing its eldritch energies.
–Foremost Menthol-American scholar Ta-Nehisi Coates.
That’s by Cornel West. It’s also the purest nonsense.
Strive to eliminate tautology fromo your writing, Tim.
‘Coates and I come from a great tradition of the black freedom struggle. He represents . . . .’
So Ta-Nehisi is a man’s name. Who knew?
‘rewards silences on issues such as Wall Street greed or Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and people.’
So the ‘black freedom struggle’ (sic) has been won and he can turn his attention to the Palestinian freedom struggle. Notice his struggles are race based . . . he is a racist. To which I’m sure he would say is okay, cos reasons.
“All that is occurring is the young bull moving in to cover the cows while the old bull frets on the sidelines about how things used to be.”
That’s not why it’s nonsense though Tim: it’s nonsense because it’s just nonsense.
Andrew C has it right. It has reached the stage where will presume anyone using the word neoliberal is a moron unless he can prove otherwise. It’s simply a term of abuse which seems to mean ‘people whose ideas I dislike and who are clever enough that i can’t argue with them so I have to resort to abuse/name-calling to shut down debate’. A staple of Corbinite discourse across the internet.
I thought Coates was too busy helping out Marvel Comics in their race to the bottom to bother with politics…
There is no grand philosophical difference here. All that is occurring is the young bull moving in to cover the cows while the old bull frets on the sidelines about how things used to be.
Or, more precisely, one young House Negro moving in to replace one old House Negro.
After reading Between The World And Me, I was struck by two facts: (1) Every black man in Coates’ life – starting with his father – failed him (by choice), and (2) Coates steadfastly refused (and still refuses) to acknowledge that fact #1 had far move to do with the difficulties he has encountered than any manifestation of institutional racism.
Hope you’re happy, Bravefart. I did it for you.
“Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and people.”
Is he sound on Black American occupation of Red Indian lands?
Thank you Dennis.
Another article that may interest those of you concerned with matters of supreme import is Owen Jones latest piece of bum fluff:
Stefano Gabbana doesn’t want to be labelled gay – but it’s not up to him
“Coates steadfastly refused (and still refuses) to acknowledge that fact #1 had far move to do with the difficulties he has encountered than any manifestation of institutional racism.”
Bill Clinton instituted the policy of accommodating the character disordered, the belief that other people are responsible for their problems.
The Americans with Disabilities Act is a monument to such idiocy.
Millions of blacks have been indoctrinated to believe that whitey is responsible for their problems. The Democrats use this. In effect, against the blacks.
We are currently 7.5 ish percent of world population. Most people of other races seem to hate us because we peaked first and highest, then declined hardest in terms of population. That was a strategic mistake.
I wonder when the genocide will start, and what we will do when it does?
Holding up Coates’s overblown shrieking as an example of good writing is “the soft bigotry of low expectations”. No white writer would be allowed to get away with peddling that puerile, hysterical shit. As for Cornel West: he’s so drenched in Lacanian post-post-modernism as to have entirely disappeared up his own arsehole. Of course he hates Jews and likes Moslem barbarians. It could not be otherwise.
You should give credit where its due.
Cornel West was good in that “Naked Prey” movie and even tho’ its a few years old now the bloke kept it totally tropical–sorry , topical.
Its about a white bloke looking for business opportunities in Africa when a bunch of locals first steal literally everything he has and then try to kill him.
Fortunately being white he turns the tables on the nasty bunch and wins through in the end. Its a good film.
That young Mr Tar-Forthecash will have to go some to equal that level of artistic contribution.
Perhaps a re-make of “Sanders of the River” ?
“I wonder when the genocide will start, and what we will do when it does?”
Can you imagine millennials fighting? Cos it will be up to them…..
“Is he sound on Black American occupation of Red Indian lands?”
What about the continuing black occupation of Carib Indian lands?
“What about the continuing black occupation of Carib Indian lands?”
Yep, and what about Bantu occupation of the lands of the Hottentots and Bushmen? Or the lands of the Malays of Madagascar? Or large chunks of London?
Gamecock – “Millions of blacks have been indoctrinated to believe that whitey is responsible for their problems. The Democrats use this. In effect, against the blacks.”
Yeah but what is the alternative? Blacks are surrounded by the monuments to a massively successful civilisation. Every day they are reminded of how unprecedented the success and achievements of White people are. Every time they open their eyes.
As are Jews as well of course. But they handle it better.
Is this the chap who formed an entire career around the time a white woman once told his son, dawdling on an escalator, to get a move on?
“Is this the chap who formed an entire career around the time a white woman once told his son, dawdling on an escalator, to get a move on?”
Yes. He also revealed that he’d been bullied mercilessly by his fellow blacks at school for being too studious. Naturally, this was the fault of white people.