In Which Ta-Nehisi Coates Makes the Case for Reparations for Slavery and Co-incidentally Told Me Why The Tea Party Is So Angry

Ta-Nehisi Coates has a great article on racism and a case for reparations for slavery. You should go read it. Now.

Have you read it? If not, you really should.

Read it yet? If not, here it is again.

And, in reading it, I understood the anger of the tea party. Historical racism has always been mostly corruption and terrorism, not simple bigotry. Not only were African-Americans directly mistreated, but also there was nowhere for them to turn for justice. The history of fraud, deceit, and terrorism is long and grim and few courts would ever grant relief, let alone punish the guilty.

And this, in the looting of the wealth of the US middle class, is what white middle-class Americans have experienced in the past 35 years. They thought they were the upper class, they thought they could victimize with impunity, and instead they are the victims. Somewhere, I think, there are people saying that they've been treated like niggers. Do they, in their anger, reject supremacy? No, instead they look for new victims.