The Cowardice of Ta-Nehisi Coates

The big Ta-Nehisi Coates case for reparations has finally hit the web. There is a soft case in favor of reparations. By soft case, that is a general nod in favor the argument of reparations with lots of qualification. We have tried for at least two generations to relieve a certain segment of the white population of their unfounded guilt over slavery and discrimination. The only way to do that is to settle up with the blacks. We hammer out an agreement, write the checks and close the books on the issue for good.

The Coates story has been anticipated for a while, since he is the latest novelty on the progressive circuit.  Right out of the shoot we get a Biblical quote and a snippet from John Locke. Then the whole thing falls apart. Instead of making the case for why reparations will solve the problem, he spends thousands and thousands of words bitching and moaning about whitey and how rotten it is to be black in America. Anyone over the age of ten has heard it all before and has no interest in hearing it again.

It’s not just laziness, it is cowardice. Look, reparations in the abstract are easy. It is when you get to nut-cutting that things get tough. How much does each black person get? How do we determined who is eligible? Who pays? How do we figure that out? More important, how do we then de-construct the previous efforts at reparations like affirmative action? That’s tough and it takes skill to make the case. It also takes a degree of honesty not popular in the comfy lefty confines.

Coates, of course, is really just a grifter. He’s not well read or educated, but he knows how to game white liberal elites into giving him stuff. He reads enough to drop references and book titles with some skill. That pleases liberal whites. He does the authentic black guy bit by living in Harlem. He’s checking off all the boxed for his benefactors. This article is aimed at them. It allows them to weep and wallow in their self-inflicted misery. They get to feel good over feeling bad about their privilege.

Maybe he lacks the wherewithal to make a sensible argument in favor of reparations, so maybe that’s part of it. He’s another victim of affirmative action. Even so, he could make the old black demand for free stuff. He can’t even do that as the free stuff would have to come from his Jewish benefactors. That would risk his place on the gravy train, so he just goes with emotive pap. That’s what makes him a character.

7 thoughts on “The Cowardice of Ta-Nehisi Coates

  1. The term “reparations” has been much discussed by liberal blogs. We are meant to understand that when he writes “reparations”, he doesn’t mean, like, REPARATIONS reparations, he means, like, conversations about privelege and power, and stuff, right, like white people need to recognize how society’s inherent racism totally advantages them and stuff.

  2. The Jews have been shaking down Europeans for generations. What makes you think this bollocks would be any different?

  3. When Reagan was persuaded to go along with the initial Illegal Alien Amnesty, it was presented to him on the basis that it would settle the issue ‘once and for all.’ That worked out well, didn’t it?

  4. Reparations? Really? Somebody please tell my Mexican wife which of Oprahs mansions she should mail her reparations check to. How about Obama? He’s half and half. Does he get a reparations check? Will it be pro-rated at 50%. Who’s black? How do we decide? Is it based on say so? Fine, I’m black. Send me a check. No? So we have to do DNA testing to determine who’s black? Of all 320 million people? Good luck with that. What’s the standard for who qualifies and who doesn’t when this testing is done? Who decides? But beyond that, why am I (and my immigrant wife) paying for the sins of my father? This is an absolutely ridiculous idea that is not even remotely being thought through.

  5. I can pretty much guarantee that if such payments were ever made, it would make absolutely no difference. There is no rational way to approach these people.

  6. seventeen trillion in entitlement payouts since ’64. seventeen trillion in debt. coincidence? all debts public and private have been paid, and my children’s future mortgaged to do it. eg, Pigford v. Glickman. time to declare “reparations” over and done forever.

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