i want to read you something that jonathan chate wrote in new york magazine today.ve the ferocity of opposition to barack obama. he that says anything that republicans say about obama that could be explained by racism is probably racism, and since racists wouldn't like anything obama does, that rendered just about any criticism of obama, which is to say nearly everything republicans say about obama presumpttively racist. talk just a little bit about kind of this liberal critique of fellow liberals in the sense of chate arguing that now it is liberal who's are overly racializing the context of the obama presidency. >> martin luther king jr. was edifying elence and poetry suggested that the real enemies to progress wasn't the white racists that stood against us. it was the white liberals who were soft in the sense of refusing to take a stand against injustice. it is just such liberals who have failed to stand in the trenches with people of color whose backs are against the wall because they benefit more broadly. i'm want talking about mr. chate individually, but it do

on march 19th, enter jonathan chate who responded by defending the idea that culture is, at least in part, responsible for the perpetuation of african-american poverty. he wrote, it would be bizarre to image that centuries of slavery followed by systemic terrorism, segregation, discrimination, a legacy wealth gap, and so on did not leave a cultural residue that itself became an impediment to success. coates then responded, quote, chate believes it's bizarre to think otherwise. i think it's bizarre that he doesn't bother to see his argument as if it's actually true. oppression might well produce a culture of failure, it might also produce a warrior spirit and a deep commitment to attaining the very things that have been so often withheld from you. there is no need for theorizing, the answers are knowable. and that is when it started to get good. chait, march 28th, barack obama versus the culture of poverty. coates, march 30th, other people's theologies. coates disagrees with jonathan chait and so do i. the blue period, an origin story. nerd alicious, good, wickedly smart people using