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                                             July 18, 2020

Ta-Nehisi Coates
"Eight Years in Power" (2017)

A collection of the eight pieces from the
Atlantic, plus a lot of ancillary material
discussing them, much of it autobiographical--
he talks about what he was trying to do and
comments on how well he thought it worked.

These are the pieces that turned Coates into a
made man, the main Black Public Intellectual of      He's clearly has some
recent years.                                        reservations about
                                                     inhabiting that slot, but
                                                     he does his best with it.

The introduction immediately makes clear that
while the title is a reference to the Obama
years, it's not where the phrase comes from.
It's from 1895 when a Thomas Miller, a South
Carolina Congressman was defending what they'd
accomplished under Reconstruction.


The first point that Coates makes in this book
rings true: while white racists claim to fear
crazy barbaric black people, what really sends
them into a panic is sane, civilized black
people, particularly running the government.
Their reaction to Obama has much precedent.


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