Ta-Nehisi Coates, Macarthur-winning author of the outstanding Between the World and Me, was widely criticized when he condemned Bernie Sanders for saying that reparations for slavery were not a practical political goal (Coates won many prizes and gained much recognition for a superb essay called The Case for Reparations).
Coates’s critics on the left focused on Sanders’s credentials as a fighter against inequality, corruption and the finance industry (contrasting that with Hillary Clinton’s cozy relationship with Wall Street and Bill Clinton’s racist criminal justice and welfare policies).
Coates, it seems, agrees: while believing that Sanders should consider reparations (“What is doable and what is morally correct are not always the same things“), he still believes Sanders to be the superior candidate and will vote for him, according to a response to Amy Goodman on Democracy Now.
Coates expanded on his views on Twitter:
But that said, I'm not "endorsing" anyone. I'm voting for who I'm voting for (Sen. Sanders.)
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) February 10, 2016
(via 3 Quarks Daily)