Distant Racism Explains Black Problems
False Assumption: Current black socioeconomic troubles stem from white racism in the distant past rather than events of the last half century.
Written by FARAgent on February 10, 2026
Ta-Nehisi Coates rose in the 2010s as a leading black intellectual. He published best-sellers like Between the World and Me, filled with anecdotes blaming whites for black suffering. One story involved a white woman saying 'Come on' to his dawdling son on an escalator. Another described a college acquaintance shot by a black cop, yet Coates still faulted whites. The Atlantic promoted his work. A MacArthur genius grant followed, worth $625,000.
Coates reprinted old free articles as a $28 book, We Were Eight Years in Power, adding blog posts about his moods. He earned up to $1,000 per minute on college speaking tours decrying white supremacy. His foggy memory of recent decades let him confidently blame FDR-era redlining from the 1930s for 2017 black wealth gaps, ignoring half a century of liberal race policies. White liberals embraced this, using it to justify gentrifying black neighborhoods.
Coates remains popular among elites. Critics note his poor recall of news, academic failures, and few real stories from life spent fearing other blacks. His success endures because he skips awkward facts unfit for the narrative blaming whites.
People Involved
- Ta-Nehisi Coates rose from a race blogger at The Atlantic to an intellectual figure in the 2010s. He promoted the idea that white racism from the distant past explained all current black problems. He drew on anecdotes, such as a white woman on an escalator telling his son to 'Come on,' which he framed as evidence of deep-seated racism. [1]
- Coates, a college dropout, built his career around this view in his memoirs and articles. He blamed events like 1930s redlining for black wealth gaps in the present day. He often overlooked more recent history, critics say, due to what some called his poor memory. [1] He presented these ideas as a good faith proponent, even linking a black cop's shooting to white excuses. [1]
▶ Supporting Quotes (2)
“In one, a black guy whom Coates had vaguely known in college was gunned down by a policeman. Eventually, Coates admits the shooter cop was black too, which you might think wrecks the moral of his tale. But that’s not the point; the point is that, no matter what blacks inflict upon one another, white people are to blame.”— Ta-Nehisi Coates Is Back!
“For example, Coates is much appreciated for his assertion that the reason blacks in 2017 have on average saved so little wealth has nothing to do with what has been happening over the past half century since the civil rights revolution, but instead is the direct result of the FDR administration’s redlining in the 1930s.”— Ta-Nehisi Coates Is Back!
Organizations Involved
The Atlantic played a key role in elevating Ta-Nehisi Coates' ideas in the mid-2010s. The magazine published his articles on race and later turned them into best-selling books by reprinting the free content with added commentary. [1] This approach helped spread the assumption that distant white racism drove black socioeconomic issues. Separately, the MacArthur Foundation awarded Coates a $625,000 genius grant in 2015 for his memoir that blamed white oppression. [1] Such institutional support sustained the narrative amid growing debates.
▶ Supporting Quotes (2)
“Coates, widely assumed to be America’s foremost public thinker, has published yet another best-seller: We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy. In his new $28 book, Coates reprints his old magazine articles that The Atlantic had given away for free, sandwiched between what he enticingly labels “extended blog posts””— Ta-Nehisi Coates Is Back!
“A couple of years ago, Coates was awarded a MacArthur Foundation genius grant of $625,000 for his best-selling micro-memoir Between the World and Me”— Ta-Nehisi Coates Is Back!
The Foundation
The assumption gained traction through specific stories that seemed to bolster it. In one case, Ta-Nehisi Coates pointed to a brief escalator encounter in New York around 2014, where a white woman said 'Come on' to his son; fans saw this as proof of pervasive white racism, though critics viewed it as a trivial moment twisted to fit the story. [1] Another pillar was the argument linking 1930s redlining under the FDR administration to black wealth gaps by 2017. This idea appeared plausible to those focused on historical injustices, yet it overlooked post-1960s liberal policies and comparisons like black American wealth relative to Africans. [1] Growing questions surround these foundations, as they seemed credible at first but faced scrutiny for ignoring recent contexts.
▶ Supporting Quotes (2)
“His memoir also included the celebrated story of how Coates let his little boy dawdle upon an escalator and then a white woman about to crash into the lad said, “Come on,” which is racist.”— Ta-Nehisi Coates Is Back!
“Coates is much appreciated for his assertion that the reason blacks in 2017 have on average saved so little wealth has nothing to do with what has been happening over the past half century since the civil rights revolution, but instead is the direct result of the FDR administration’s redlining in the 1930s.”— Ta-Nehisi Coates Is Back!
How It Spread
The idea spread through high-profile channels starting in the 2010s. Ta-Nehisi Coates earned up to $1,000 per minute on the college speaking circuit, where he discussed white supremacy to audiences of white liberals. [1] His best-selling books and Atlantic articles carried the message further, popularizing the redlining theory. White liberals adopted it, sometimes using the narrative to justify gentrifying black neighborhoods. [1] Media outlets and academic circles amplified these views, though critics argue this propagation relied on selective history amid emerging debates.
▶ Supporting Quotes (2)
“These two thrilling yarns have rocketed Coates to near the top of the college speaker circuit, where he makes up to $1,000 per minute on the nights when he can’t think of enough to say about White Supremacy to fulfill his contractual minimum speech length of 75 minutes.”— Ta-Nehisi Coates Is Back!
“White liberal gentrifiers want rationalizations for why blacks should be driven out of potentially valuable inner-city properties and foisted upon suburbs and small towns. To them, Coates’ redlining theory is a license to print money.”— Ta-Nehisi Coates Is Back!
Harm Caused
Ta-Nehisi Coates' narrative shifted blame away from recent liberal policies and black behaviors, critics contend. This allowed white gentrifiers to displace black residents while profiting, all under the guise of addressing historical wrongs. [1] The focus on distant events also skipped inconvenient facts, such as African-Americans being wealthier than people in Africa, which perpetuated incomplete explanations. [1] Mounting evidence challenges whether this approach has hindered more accurate understandings of socioeconomic troubles.
▶ Supporting Quotes (2)
“White liberal gentrifiers want rationalizations for why blacks should be driven out of potentially valuable inner-city properties and foisted upon suburbs and small towns. To them, Coates’ redlining theory is a license to print money.”— Ta-Nehisi Coates Is Back!
“Why have blacks failed to build much wealth? Well, African-Americans tend to be the poorest Americans but the richest Africans. But that kind of subversive insight would never dawn upon Coates, which is one reason he’s made millions.”— Ta-Nehisi Coates Is Back!
Downfall
Critics began questioning the assumption more openly by the late 2010s. They pointed to Ta-Nehisi Coates' foggy recall of recent events and his academic setbacks, which raised doubts about his authority on race and history. [1] Growing dissent argues that this emphasis on distant racism overlooks the last half century's complexities. The debate remains contested, with mounting evidence challenging the narrative's completeness.
▶ Supporting Quotes (1)
“Coates’ knack for forgetting recent history is especially well paid because there have been all these embarrassing events during the past half century that would undermine his cherished assertion that all the troubles of “black bodies” today are the fault of “people who think they are white.””— Ta-Nehisi Coates Is Back!
Sources
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[1]
Ta-Nehisi Coates Is Back!reputable_journalism