The May issue of The Atlantic is one of their best in a while, maybe the best since Michael Kelly’s much-lamented death. Of all the articles, I think the most interesting is Ta-Nehisi Coates’ take on Bill Cosby and his mission to transform the American black community. Read the article, watch the accompanying video, and see what you think:
I don’t know enough to evaluate Coates’ intellectual history, though his tracking of the arguments and influence and political descendants of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois makes sense to me on first read; and I don’t think racism is as endemic (among people of any skin color or ethnic heritage) as Cosby thinks it is, though my pessimistic streak tells me it’s probably more common in general than in my own experience. I find Cosby’s mission largely admirable, even if there are points on which I would disagree with him; I’m not sure how concerned I should be about those points, especially when it seems to me his message is fundamentally one of encouragement, and encouragement is in far too short supply. There’s a lot to chew on here—especially, I think, for the church.
HT for the video: Ray Ortlund