2014: Confronting America's Uncomfortable Struggle With Race
Friday, December 19, 2014
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Activists in Little Rock Arkansas hold a die in protest at the Park Plaza Mall in response to the refusal of a Grand Jury to indict the police officer who caused Eric Garner's death. December 07, 2014 (Rex Lisman/Getty)
From Michael Brown in Ferguson to Tamir Rice in Cleveland and Eric Garner in Staten Island, black and white America seemed very far apart in 2014.
Ta-Nehisi Coates covered those stories as a national correspondent for The Atlantic. He says that while police-community relations are a major issue, the underlying problem is rooted in America's long history of racism.
"Throughout American history, African-Americans have been considered...an outlaw class," Coates says. "I think police tactics have been a reflection of that."
"The police are an outgrowth of the country that they serve," Coates continues. "So the expectation that somehow they would be more understanding that your normal, average American—I think that just assumes too much."
Coates also examines the rape allegations against Bill Cosby, which first surfaced in 2005. This year, many more women came forward to accuse Cosby. In 2008, Coates published a long profile of Cosby in The Atlantic, and he tells The Takeaway that he regrets omitting those allegations from his piece.
