We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy

Despite his understanding of America as a racial tragedy, Coates admits that for years, he labored under a misunderstanding of what accounts for the persistence of Black people’s status as an underclass. Like American sociologist Julius Wilson, Coates long believed that this underclass status was simply a more intense effect of the hollowing out of American industrial jobs, not the result of actual government policy.

The result of such a view is a belief that economic policies that benefit all victims of this loss of good jobs will naturally benefit Black Americans as well—a “rising tide lifts all ships” theory. Take care of that economic problem, the theory goes, and the impact of racism on Black Americans will also be ameliorated. This approach allows centrists and some liberals to sidestep racist, conservative attacks on anti-racist programs like affirmative action. The consequence of centrist Democrats’ embrace of a rising tide theory to address racism is an inability to accept the continued role of White supremacy and racism in American society. Doing so would require admitting that White privilege is alive and well.

Coates admits that he was wrong to accept the rising tide theory. His personal experience and how frequently working-class White voters aligned along racial rather than class lines in their voting patterns should have been enough to get him to reject this theory.