Ta-Nehisi Coates Responds: "It's a Privilege for Me to Be Black"
On Tuesday, The Atlantic's Ta-Nehisi Coates illuminated one of the key disadvantages of the white public intellectual: "You can live in the world of myth and be taken seriously."
This week, Andrew "Just Asking Questions" Sullivan responded to Coates' recent refresher on The New Republic's troubling history of racism by doubling down on the racial pseudoscience he published as editor of TNR, suggesting, among other things, that as a liberal publication, the magazine couldn't be racist.
Having previously addressed Sullivan's defenses at length, Coates took to Twitter to instead explore why bigots like former TNR owner Marty Peretz are able to publicly entertain juvenile race myths—the kind Coates gave up as a teenager:
Thinking about this all makes me very happy to have been in Howard University's history department in the mid-90s.
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
I came to Howard when I was 17 with some backwards-ass ideas--specifically about white people.
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
I was not above quoting some dumb shit about "ice people" and "sun people."
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
And I was not above telling you the ancient Egyptians had helicopters and sailed to South America before Columbus.
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
I had a bunch of history professors--most of him black--who gave me that "N-word is you crazy?" look.
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
They broke my heart every day, in every class.
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
They knew that if I ever went out and said that in front of any group of well-read people, I would get my head cut off.
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
More importantly they really pushed us away from easy explanations about the black condition. None of that "When we were kings..." BS.
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
They just weren't having it. None of that "We were kidnapped from Africa..." No. Deal with what happened to you. Speak directly. No myth.
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
In another world I'd be sitting here trying to prove that there was some "genetic" shit that explained slavery and genocide in the Americas.
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
It's embarrassing. And if you are going to be a black writer and taken seriously, you can't say dumb shit like that.
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
But this is the importance of HBCU. I needed people like me to say, "No. This black intellectual shit is not about comforting yourself."
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
It was physically painful to say--"Yes, I was sold by people who looked like me." But what came after was incredible...
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
It was really important. But the burden of whiteness is this: You can live in the world of myth and be taken seriously.
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
You can--effectively--believe the kind of isht which I was disabused of and...edit the in-flight magazine of Air Force One.
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
Fuck editing it--you can own it.
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
Marty Peretz thoughts on race--as owner of TNR--are the intellectual equivalent of my thoughts at 17.
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
"Muslim life is cheap" is basically "sun people"/"ice people."
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
There's no difference. And it's sad because being forced to face up to your ordinariness, your lack of nobility, is so beautiful.
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
It's very sad to see someone call Charles Murray "the most influential social scientist in America."
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
Someone who loves and knows how you sound should say, "Man listen..." I got that at 17.
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
Chris Rock says that no white dude's would trade with him because being black is so hard. And I feel the exact opposite.
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
It's a privilege for me to be black. It's imposed rigor on me. It's a very beautiful thing to have no need of "ice people."
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
Would never give that back.
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) December 24, 2014
