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>AFAIK, he wrote a single article on the subject of reparations. I read it; it was fascinating and made some good points.
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>He's a professional writer. He's written many articles and more than one book. So saying that his "writings in general" have called for reparations is misleading.
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>Tamar

Oh, my.....I think you should take a closer look at his involvement in the social media explosion (mainly through video interviews) where he's been promoting his Atlantic article. It's becoming clear (very clear) that he's using his writings as a pretext for reparations.

Do a search on some of his public speaking appearances and watch the Q&A sessions. He struggles with the most basic of questions on any kind of practical plan. It's becoming clear he's a pure academic who is very good (and he's a very good writer) at describing racism but falls short on where to go from here.

(As an aside...he once called Melissa Harris Perry "America's foremost public intellectual". That was worth quite a chuckle).

I don't think I would use the term "fascinating and good points" to describe his arguments. Too much appeal to emotion. The actual economic history is much more complicated than Coates would have people believe. America's economy wasn't export driven in the days of slavery, so cotton wasn't exactly the industry driving the economy - and the 3 billion dollars that Coates quotes has been challenged by historians. He also ignores the economic demographics and history of other immigrant groups.

The minute one starts talking about reparations for slavery, remember that a high % of southern whites did not own slaves. Slave owners often earned as much as 10x more per year than non-slave owners. That's just one of many situations that demonstrates the complexity of trying to decide a "pay-out".

Don't get me wrong - he tells some very powerful stories (true stories). His heart is in the right place. I certainly think more of him than I think of MHP. But candidly, I see someone like Dr. Carson (for all his flaws) as more of a problem-solver. I'd love to see those two (Coates and Carson) put their heads together. Maybe then Coates will rethink MHP being "America's foremost public intellectual".