Wonkette Journalism Review: Let Us Speak Now Of Racism. Or Pegging. Whatever.

 
 Today we ponder two awesome pieces of journalism, both of which had Twitter buzzing when they hit the web late Wednesday night. It was a tough choice for us deciding which one excited us more. Nothing we like better than some hard-hitting web content. Let’s compare the two and see which one has the potential to be more thought-provoking.

On the one hand, you have Ta-Nehisi Coates’ eagerly awaited cover story for The Atlantic,  “The Case for Reparations.” Coates has given us a searing indictment of the racism that has undergirded American society from the day the first slaves were brought to the North American continent, showing the reader, largely through the story of black efforts to capture a piece of the American dream by owning their own homes, particularly in one black neighborhood in Chicago, how the systemic physical, psychological and economic violence done to black minds, bodies, families and souls has wreaked havoc upon African-Americans for 400 years and continues to do so today.

On the other hand, you have this piece from Buzzfeed titled, before the listicle giant changed it to something slightly less provocative, “Which Supreme Court Justice Should You Masturbate To?”

Coates:

Ross and the Contract Buyers League were no longer appealing to the government simply for equality. They were no longer fleeing in hopes of a better deal elsewhere. They were charging society with a crime against their community. They wanted the crime publicly ruled as such. They wanted the crime’s executors declared to be offensive to society. And they wanted restitution for the great injury brought upon them by said offenders.

Buzzfeed:

Coates:

To ignore the fact that one of the oldest republics in the world was erected on a foundation of white supremacy, to pretend that the problems of a dual society are the same as the problems of unregulated capitalism, is to cover the sin of national plunder with the sin of national lying. The lie ignores the fact that reducing American poverty and ending white supremacy are not the same. The lie ignores the fact that closing the “achievement gap” will do nothing to close the “injury gap,” in which black college graduates still suffer higher unemployment rates than white college graduates, and black job applicants without criminal records enjoy roughly the same chance of getting hired as white applicants with criminal records.

Buzzfeed:

Journalism!

[ The Atlantic / Buzzfeed ]

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