“The Case for Reparations”
January 3, 2015
DAVID BROOKS, the New York Times columnist laughably called “conservative,” picks the top magazine essays of 2014. His favorite is the “blockbuster” article by Ta-Nehisi Coates in The Atlantic calling for reparations for blacks. All American blacks, in Coates’s view, should receive money in reparation not just for slavery but for ongoing discrimination, particularly discrimination in lending.
Brooks writes, “The essay has incredible propulsive force.” That it does. You might call it a journalistic version of the Knock Out Game.
Coates has impeccable elite credentials. He is the son of a member of the Black Panthers. He has done remarkably well as a journalist even though he dropped out of college.
See Jared Taylor’s excellent analysis from last May of Coates’s essay.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
