The Moral Myopia of Ta Nehisi Coates

Ta Nehisi Coates is both a darling of the country’s Black intelligentsia (John McWhorter being a notable exception) and America’s cultural elite of all races. The New York Times’ A.O. Scott, for instance, has lavished praise on Coates’s writing calling it “essential, like water or air.” When you are held in such esteem, an attendant luxury is that your work doesn’t automatically face much of the scrutiny those less exalted must endure. For all his acclaim, Coates often avoids facts that might complicate his highly praised stories, and in the process misleads readers with oversimplified conclusions. Is that really what great writers do?