Come on Ta-Nehisi - you know black folks ain't neva said "fist bump". LOLDude, I'm infected. Once upon a time I wrote a whole post about the ugliness of the phrase "fist-bump." The proper term is pound or dap. Anyway, my Ebonics game has gone downhill since I started blogging here at the Atlantic. I blame Douthat and McArdle. I know Fallows and Ambinder are closer, on the roll, but I wouldn't be a lefty if I couldn't implicate some conservatives in my lameness.
From Stacy:
If you really think TNC is saying that a single black man doesn't have the right to be with a white woman, I suggest you try reading the post again. Everyone is always trying to catch TNC in some obvious double standard where he shows his own racial hang-ups. It was a light-hearted post that made a serious point about Barack and Michelle's appeal. C'mon.
Deborah is the wisdom here, Stacy is the common-sense.
From the Irish Pirate:
My response to "once you gone black you never go back" is "once you gone white you know you done right".
Not much to say here except, game recognize game...
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
The proper term is pound or dap.
A terrorist fist jab?
I really love how in that vid McCain looked really uncomfortable with the question. As if he were being called on his past infidelity.
You used this post to appreciate your readers, we should use this thread to appreciate you.
My philosophy teacher (white Canadian, PhD) put me on to your blog a few months back, sometime after your Cosby feature in The Atlantic. The whole history/social science department discusses your blog now. I remember him telling me he wasn't a big fan of blogs because he thought immediacy = lower quality, but the two of us talk at length about some of the things you write. My English teacher (white Canada female, probable president of William Faulkner fan-club) says you make her "feel cool."
You won, man.
Not sure if anyone is watching this Al Smith Charity dinner right now, but John McCain is killing it. The Bill Clinton jokes were awesome. Its the best and most relaxed he's seemed the entire campaign. And he actually had some kind words for Obama that actually seemed sincere...
Aww. And thanks.
Stacy: So maybe we can move right to the post-election reconciliation phase? That'd be a relief.
Rashid: I was one of the excess commentor/visitors left behind by Matt. But Ta-Nehisi was so good, simultaneously hitting the things we agree on with a unique voice and the things I know nothing about with an educational one, that I stayed. Like the post below--hadn't thought about that aspect, and yet as soon as I read it it connected a bunch of previous things I'd read about the dating scene for black women and made sense. Also, someone needs to come up with sports analogies for me to steal--I can come up with math analogies but they don't really go over in mixed company.
Plus I like his moderation: a good conversation, with trolls dispatched by the keyboard of +12 smoting.
Meet another Red State Joe the Plummer who is leaning towards...Obama. Because of his tax plan.
www.keloland.com/NewsDetail6162.cfm?Id=0,75126
I still read Matt's blog, but the design they've got over there at CAP is just terrible..I think he deserves some new digs.
I've only recently rediscovered a love for reading, and non-fiction reading in particular. Ta-Nehisi's writing is something a Grade 12 student like myself can discuss with a 60 year old PhD educated philosophy teacher, and I really appreciate this blog for that.
Also, doesn't it bother you that your own name is labeled as a spelling error on your own website? Ugh..
IrishPirate, you cracked me up, man.
I've heard "Once you go white, your credit is tight" and "once you go Asian, there's no other persuasion"
White people who may be unclear as to when it is appropriate to fist pound may avail themselves of this crucial pamphlet.
Once you go Jew, the others won't do. Unfortunately, I've failed to get this one to catch on.
Hmmm. Once you go Hebrew, no other will please you?
Unrelatedly, here's arch-racist Glenn Loury pontificating on how lending to minorities played a big role in the financial crisis. I'd be interested to hear what you have to say on this one.
http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/15048?in=31:38&out=37:14
Since we're getting into the comment-love, Ta-Nehisi, I just wanted to say that I used to read your blog at work all the time, even before you came to the Atlantic, but for some reason the filtering program at my work has suddenly caught on to the fact that THIS IS A BLOG. (Noes!)
... Though for some reason, Sullivan and Fallows' blogs will still get through.
I think some heads need to get busted in.
Yes.
TNC, did you make it to any of this week's TVOTR shows in Brooklyn? I was at the crazy scene last night, front row off center, and was blown away. Also wondered if my new favorite blogger was in the house. They put the set list like 3 feet from me, so I played the kid peeking at his presents card and saw that Young Liars was the first track. If they'd played it without me knowing they were gonna pull it out first, I would have been so apeshit happy. Also, the brass section killed it last night.
Sigh. Once you go Canadian, nothing rhymes and there's no action forthcoming.
Deborah: Without sounding too much like a gushing fan girl, I gotta say that in a world full of anonymous and idiotic comments it's such a pleasure to read your take on things. I would often check in on Matt's blog to read the comments as much as the posts, and yours always struck me as exactly what I would have said (if I were funnier and smarter).
Mr. Coates
I am wondering if you might be doing a story on John MCCain's connection with G. Gordon Liddy. I ask this because out of all of our esteemed journalists in this country, it took Dave Letterman last night to question McCain about Liddy and point out that his relationship with Liddy is an even closer one than Obama's to Ayers. I would also point out that if you watch the video at first McCain starts to act as if he doesn't know who Liddy is and then after they come back from a commercial break he says he "knows him" and he is proud to know him but he doesnt go any deeper than that even though he has characterized Liddy as an "old friend" in the past and he has had a fundraiser at Liddy's house and Liddy has been given money to McCain's campaign as well as having hosted McCain on his radio show. If Obama's relationship with Ayers needs to be explored as McCain says then shouldnt the same apply to his relationship with Liddy. I should remind everyone that Liddy encouraged his listeners to shoot ATF agents in the head on his radio program. He also plotted to kidnap a very prominent journalist. The list goes on and on. I am just saying that SOMEONE might want to actually follow up on this story since we hear about Ayers 24 hours a day on Fixed News.
Here is the video from last night.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Letterman_nails_McCain_over_Gordon_Liddy_1017.html
what happens once you go colorblind?
When you go colorblind
You run out of rhyme
But you have a great time.
You do have a lot of cool ass-commenters.
galleymac -- thanks.
I thought I'd see rainbows in shadow.
Fun all the time
would rhyme
If fun were work
to reclaim the perks
of perfecting our union.
So a poem for Obama, inspired by you & our host, TNC:
To the future,
A righteous fling
For my soul to sing
To dance and swing
Like Love Supreme
In a dream
colorblind we scream
The time is now
We are the ones
Someway somehow
We are the ones
The time is now.
"Sigh. Once you go Canadian, nothing rhymes and there's no action forthcoming."
Aw come on, don't get all depressive on us. Whaddya mean nothing rhymes? Once you go Canuck, we'll teach you how to...
... er, slap it into the crease, so to speak.
I mean, seriously, your country was founded by beaver hunters. The smack talk writes itself. But instead you get all maudlin and blitzed on Labatts and write songs complaining about how American women have war machines and shit. Whatever. Get your game on, Canucks!
My English teacher (white Canada female, probable president of William Faulkner fan-club) says you make her "feel cool."
William Faulkner is shit, the most overrated literary hack that has ever walked the earth. He also thought that blacks should "slow down" during the Civil Rights movement.
Hemingway leaves Faulkner in the dust.
A few years back, the Canadian broadcasting Corp. ran a contest - complete the phrase "As Canadian as...", no doubt expecting "maple syrup", or "hockey" or the "Rocky Mountains" or some such boosterish nonsense. The winning response, as selected by the people, was "As Canadian as possible, under the circumstances".
Don't be fooled by the self-deprecating humour, though, it masks the smugness that comes from living next door to the world's biggest drunken goofball nation. We'll actually get depressive when Sarah Palin or her ilk turns out to be a major political force here.
In the meantime, I'm sure something can be done with Red Green's benediction "Keep your stick on the ice"...
I was going to offer "Once you try Canadian, then you get Acadians" but must bow to LaFollette's superior rhyming skills. (My father is Canadian-born, so I am a child of immigrants, albeit easily sunburnt ones. But he's also a conservative Republican, so I can't really bounce this stuff off him.)
Margaret, the moderation really makes it: manageable conversations reasonably on-topic, without devolving into trolls v calling out trolls.
I forgot the bit about "Canada: Evangeline Lilly. That's all we need to say, really."
"Canada: Evangeline Lilly. That's all we need to say, really."
Amen to that.
In all seriousness, I love the self-deprecating humor. My heart and soul dwell much closer to Canada than to Texas. But Canadians also gave us the world's only sport with strategic brawling. Don't let anyone tell you Canadians have no hip-hop cred.
That humiliating Snow video was almost 20 years ago. All is forgiven now.
Thanks for the shout up T-Man, my main bro(insert terrorist fist bump and other black stuff to prove my unhipness).
I do try to amuse. At this point of my life my sex life is largely limited to the internet so I have to find something to keep myself busy.