Read This: Ta-Nehisi Coates considers Barack Obama in the Trump era
In a lengthy new piece for The Atlantic, prominent cultural critic (and Black Panther scribe) Ta-Nehisi Coates digs into Barack Obama’s presidential legacy as seen from the perspective of the Trump era. Titled “My President Was Black,” the piece is part historical analysis and part personal reflection on the time Coates spent with the president. Most of those conversations happened before the election, although Coates was able to speak with Obama once after Trump’s unlikely success as well. And like much of his writing, Coates’ latest piece is both dense and nuanced; it celebrates the president but critiques him as well. Coates writes:
Over the next 12 years [following Obamas 2004 DNC speech], I came to regard Obama as a skilled politician, a deeply moral human being, and one of the greatest presidents in American history. He was phenomenal—the most agile interpreter and navigator of the color line I had ever seen. He had an ability to emote a deep and sincere connection to the hearts of black people, while never doubting the hearts of white people. This was the core of his 2004 keynote, and it marked his historic race speech during the 2008 campaign at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center—and blinded him to the appeal of Trump. (“As a general proposition, it’s hard to run for president by telling people how terrible things are,” Obama once said to me.)