Ta-Nehisi Coates Rules, The Thread

there's so much i like about the piece. the research is thorough, the original reporting is fantastic - i think Coates' case is really compelling. there was one argument in the middle of the piece that i couldn't totally get on board with (about patriotism a la carte), and i thought the piece could've used a more decisive conclusion (i was initially confused about where the rest of the article was - it ended so abruptly), but those are pretty minor quibbles and this is one of my favorite things i've ever read in the Atlantic. i had never heard this story either, so i was grateful that he included it:

Among the Jews of Israel, reparations provoked violent and venomous reactions ranging from denunciation to assassination plots. On January 7, 1952, as the Knesset—the Israeli parliament—convened to discuss the prospect of a reparations agreement with West Germany, Menachem Begin, the future prime minister of Israel, stood in front of a large crowd, inveighing against the country that had plundered the lives, labor, and property of his people. Begin claimed that all Germans were Nazis and guilty of murder. His condemnations then spread to his own young state. He urged the crowd to stop paying taxes and claimed that the nascent Israeli nation characterized the fight over whether or not to accept reparations as a “war to the death.” When alerted that the police watching the gathering were carrying tear gas, allegedly of German manufacture, Begin yelled, “The same gases that asphyxiated our parents!”

is there an "anonymous coates reparations piece comments over stock photos" tumblr yet?

is there anyone responding thoughtfully to the piece yet anywhere or are ppl pretty much still reading/digesting it?

can't wait for NRO's Kevin Williamson's response.

i like that coates attached his argument to an actual piece of passable legislation - Conyers’s HR40

is there anyone responding thoughtfully to the piece yet anywhere or are ppl pretty much still reading/digesting it?

― Mordy, Thursday, May 22, 2014 1:21 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

its so good its like no one is worthy to respond

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BoQchowCYAAEKuW.png

haven't read this yet but intrigued by the idea that something could be so forcefully argued that it can only be fitfully processed in the noise of political discourse.

it's both comprehensively argued and also asks for so little - the passage of a bill to study the issue

can't wait for NRO's Kevin Williamson's response.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, May 22, 2014 12:33 PM

Maybe I'm not attentive enough, but it seems to me that NRO steers clear of Coates.

don't think they'll be able to avoid this one

I love the way the story of Clyde Ross is woven through this piece. It really becomes something much more than a 'thinkpiece' or an 'article'...I mean, part of me want this to blow up into a book deal. I'd love to read more.

I did feel a bit the same as Mordy w/r/t to the conclusion...I scrolled down looking for another page or something, it was an abrupt conclusion for something so well structured and thoughtful.

otm its more than just an article, the thing that really sets coates apart imo is that while he can do the reporting and argumentation especially as good as anyone he really brings a true personal caring and humanity and humility to his work, an inspiration to us all

http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/05/22/314881767/how-to-tell-if-someones-actually-read-ta-nehisi-coates-essay

yeah but now u can just read that and adjust accoringly

imo coates blog used to be much better than his long form writing but its seems like now hes incorporated a lot of what makes the blog so great into his other pieces

any idea what these guys are talking about?

https://twitter.com/nealcarter/status/469475311868846080

I fucking hate when people throw shade with no link to whatever it is that caused them to throw shade

also fuck Tim Wise

this is apparently the piece he's talking about:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/04/fear-the-fro/275379/

lol that guy's twitter pic tho

Still not getting what the issue is here. Sounds like some echo chamber bs to me.

hmm SOME PEOPLE itt dont like subtweets it seems

hahaha wait, so Ta-Nehisi Coates writes a short article about a woman's conflicted relationship with her natural hair and that is proof that he hates black women?

idgi

yeah mystified over here too

I think it might be another piece about Lupita Nyong'o being referred to? At least that's what it seemed like in that stream of tweets.

But if they're talking about this, then I even MORE don't get it

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/03/lupita-nyongos-radical-world-changing-style/284274/

Bah, that's not even by Ta-Nehisi.

lol

https://twitter.com/nealcarter/status/469480372518912001

https://twitter.com/nealcarter/status/469492058907230208

https://twitter.com/nealcarter/status/469501346383921152

I think that is the whole of it

TNC dissed Nel Carter?!

ha it is that first one

they are outing TNC for wearing a hair piece and he won't own up to it

but it looks so natural!

Well, Steve Harvey faked having the freshest line-up in America for damn near a decade. If not him, then who can we trust?

omg dying at the "controversy" there.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/the-case-for-reparations-an-intellectual-autopsy/371125/

And this lobs a point that's right in my wheelhouse

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/05/coming-to-terms-with-difficult-history-japan-china-germany-and-the-united-states/371401/

genuinely considering subscribing to the Atlantic for a year just to give props to that article.

omg dying at the "controversy" there.

― wat is teh waht (s.clover), Thursday, May 22, 2014 5:50 PM (4 hours ago)

this goof on twitter who "started this" (NB i have no idea if anyone has paid attention to his tweets outside of the people itt) has like 2000 followers, i really doubt anyone GAF

What is considered to be a "blue period" on this blog, is considered to be a survey course among academics. Which is not to say everyone, or even mostly everyone, agrees with me in the academy. It is to say that I've yet to engage a historian or sociologist who's requested that I not be such a downer.

o t m

this goof on twitter who "started this" (NB i have no idea if anyone has paid attention to his tweets outside of the people itt) has like 2000 followers, i really doubt anyone GAF

I found out about it from Jamelle Bouie's twitter

thought the abrupt conclusion on the subprime stuff worked, like he's preempting the standard cognitive urge to assign an ending to the story since huge part of his point is that in no way is this history over, it's all one long horrible continuum running unbroken right up to the present.

Coates on Chris Hayes' show tonight.

Yeah I was waiting for him to drop the subprime stuff - when he started mentioning it I figured it was the equivalent of the lights going on at the end of a show xp

http://billmoyers.com/episode/facing-the-truth-the-case-for-reparations/

^^ Interview on Moyers doesn't add much, but I like watching him talk.

PFT Commenter with the closest thing we're going to see to a rebuttal: http://kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com/2014/05/reparations-http://images.chron.com/blogs/askacat/hatcat.JPG-mark-cuban-essay-race-three-parts.html

aha, my first hatcat, achievement unlocked.

anonanon otm, found the circling back around to (and leaving off in the middle of) flat reportage after the article's emotional climax (but now it wasn't 1790 or 1865 or 1946 or 1980) devastating honestly.

He was interviewed on NPR's All Things Considered last night too

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117869/ta-nehisi-coates-reparations-article-sparks-conservative-outrage

This is about the reaction on 1 conservative talk show when liberal writer Isaac Chotiner (who had written about the Coates article) was invited on to discuss reparations

PFT Commenter with the closest thing we're going to see to a rebuttal

I think I deserve reparations for even starting to read that.