# Ta-Nehisi Coates is an extremely overrated writer! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 8, 2017, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ta-nehisi-coates-is-an-extremely-overrated-writer/795775 "2017-09-08T03:10:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2017, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ta-nehisi-coates-is-an-extremely-overrated-writer/795775/1 "2017-09-08T03:10:07Z")
Here is his latest, very long form article, from The Atlantic. > **[The First White President](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/the-first-white-president-ta-nehisi-coates/537909/)** > > The foundation of Donald Trump’s presidency is the negation of Barack Obama’s legacy. Most of the time, I actually agree with the substance of his articles for The Atlantic. But, he seems have become a darling of the NPR crowd, he comes off as amazingly arrogant during interviews. His writing has become increasingly pompous and I can almost see him sneering down from his ivory tower at all the people in disgust. ‘My President Was Black’ was fawned over because it was published right at the end of Obama’s presidency as we were all nervous about Trump. Both articles are suitable only for graduate level liberal arts classes. He loves to throw out obscure quotes to show us how brilliant he is and flaunt his SAT vocabulary. I don’t mind articles written with a college level vocabulary, but Mr. Coates seems to want to show off, rather than pick appropriate words. I won’t waste my time reading his essays in the future. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2017, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ta-nehisi-coates-is-an-extremely-overrated-writer/795775/2 "2017-09-08T03:13:30Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Here is his latest, very long form article, from The Atlantic. > [Donald Trump Is the First White President - The Atlantic](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/the-first-white-president-ta-nehisi-coates/537909/) > Most of the time, I actually agree with the substance of his articles for The Atlantic. But, he seems have become a darling of the NPR crowd, he comes off as amazingly arrogant during interviews. > > His writing has become increasingly pompous and I can almost see him sneering down from his ivory tower at all the people in disgust. > > ‘My President Was Black’ was fawned over because it was published right at the end of Obama’s presidency as we were all nervous about Trump. > > Both articles are suitable only for graduate level liberal arts classes. He loves to throw out obscure quotes to show us how brilliant he is and flaunt his SAT vocabulary. I don’t mind articles written with a college level vocabulary, but Mr. Coates seems to want to show off, rather than pick appropriate words. > > I won’t waste my time reading his essays in the future. What obscure words? The only one I had trouble with was “hoary”, and that’s probably one that I should have known already. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2017, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ta-nehisi-coates-is-an-extremely-overrated-writer/795775/3 "2017-09-08T03:28:37Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > Both articles are suitable only for graduate level liberal arts classes. He loves to throw out obscure quotes to show us how brilliant he is and flaunt his SAT vocabulary. I don’t mind articles written with a college level vocabulary, but Mr. Coates seems to want to show off, rather than pick appropriate words. This is not actually a statement about the writing. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2017, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ta-nehisi-coates-is-an-extremely-overrated-writer/795775/4 "2017-09-08T03:58:32Z")
[QUOTE=dalej42;] Both articles are suitable only for graduate level liberal arts classes. [/QUOTE] Is… that supposed to be a bad thing? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2017, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ta-nehisi-coates-is-an-extremely-overrated-writer/795775/5 "2017-09-08T05:01:48Z")
I agree with the OP. I feel Coates is trying to show off with his writing. Here’s a passage from the article: > [@](#): > > It is often said that Trump has no real ideology, which is not true—his ideology is white supremacy, in all its truculent and sanctimonious power. Trump inaugurated his campaign by casting himself as the defender of white maidenhood against Mexican “rapists,” only to be later alleged by multiple accusers, and by his own proud words, to be a sexual violator himself. White supremacy has always had a perverse sexual tint. Trump’s rise was shepherded by Steve Bannon, a man who mocks his white male critics as “cucks.” The word, derived from cuckold, is specifically meant to debase by fear and fantasy—the target is so weak that he would submit to the humiliation of having his white wife lie with black men. That the slur cuck casts white men as victims aligns with the dicta of whiteness, which seek to alchemize one’s profligate sins into virtue. So it was with Virginia slaveholders claiming that Britain sought to make slaves of them. So it was with marauding Klansmen organized against alleged rapes and other outrages. So it was with a candidate who called for a foreign power to hack his opponent’s email and who now, as president, is claiming to be the victim of “the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history.” Truculent? Sanctimonious? Maidenhood? Dicta? Alchemize? Profligate? Yes, I know what these words mean. But were they necessary? Could other more common words have expressed the same message? I use a lot of fancy words. But I don’t use them unless I feel they express what I’m trying to say better than any simpler words would. I don’t use alchemize if change or transform will work just as well. Coates’ sentence construction is also unnecessarily complicated. _“Trump inaugurated his campaign by casting himself as the defender of white maidenhood against Mexican “rapists,” only to be later alleged by multiple accusers, and by his own proud words, to be a sexual violator himself.”_ By my count, there are nine separate elements in that sentence. Readers are going to have a hard time following that path of words. I also don’t feel Coates makes a compelling argument. He argues that Trump’s power derives from white supremacy. As evidence to support this argument, he repeats it several times. So I agree with the OP. There may be some substance to what Coates is saying. But he does a bad job of saying it. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2017, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ta-nehisi-coates-is-an-extremely-overrated-writer/795775/6 "2017-09-08T09:53:53Z")
And here I thought this was going to be about his run on _Black Panther_… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2017, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ta-nehisi-coates-is-an-extremely-overrated-writer/795775/7 "2017-09-08T10:46:37Z")
There’s already [a thread about this in Great Debates](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=835661), where this one should have been in the first place. I’ll just close this one.