We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy

In many ways "We Were Eight Years In Power" has been a fitting capstone to the year. Two of Coates' essays delved into subjects I had read about this year: Malcolm X and Michelle Obama. To have these people reviewed through another perspective - especially a perspective as intellectually rigourous as Coates - deepened my understanding of both. The other essays in this collection were likewise thought provoking. I had, to some extent, been aware of the way the U.S. structurely disadvantages people of color and black people in specific. The author hammered home the details of this system, and does so with poignancy, that fleshed out my understanding of history and deepened my anger. A couple takeaways:

One of the potential flaws of liberalism is the assumption that taking a color-blind approach to policy will result in a colorblind impact. However, Coates provides ample detail on how policies that we think of as the hallmarks of liberal efforts - the New Deal, the GI Bill and the federal subsidization of suburban housing - were explicitly designed or allowed to come into being only if they excluded blacks from benefiting. Because of this, any government policy that impacts justice, health care, or wealth should explicitly consider race as it is formulized, if only to address the impact of a deepening racial divide.

The argument for reparations to America's black population is not one that I had dedicated significant thought to. It seemed to me that, as Obama and other actors have argued, if the black population was disproportionately impoverished as a result of policies, then policies geared towards addressing poverty at large should be able to lift up blacks as well as whites and other ethnic groups. However, the argument Coates makes here, that the poverty and economic disadvantages faced by blacks is unique, since in many ways it is the product of decades of design, and that it does not emerge from the same structural disadvantage that results in poverty in whites, suggests that a fully color blind approach is not a viable way to address black poverty. There is a danger of suggesting that the roots of white poverty are the roots of all poverty in the U.S., and ignoring the role of the criminal justice system, education system, health care systems, etc, in perpetuating the wealth gap in black america. Therefore, solutions to poverty should consider race and all the elements of justice, health care, education, climate, etc.

This underlines the arguments I'm hearing from people like Rihanna Gunn-Wright. Holisitic approaches are more complicated, but essential if we want to achieve justice.

This book angered me, saddened me, and made me ashamed of the ways I, and the people I support, say things and make decisions that perpetuate inequality. I hope that reading it is helping to deepen my understanding and make me into a better person.