In this listener-requested episode, Brett reviews author Ta-Nehisi Coates' eight year chronicle of the Obama years leading up to the election of Donald Trump to the presidency. In "We Were Eight Years in Power" Brett finds a master's grasp of pathos; a memoir and essay collection that draws readers into the nihilistic "black atheism" of a man who watches his hopes slowly dashed against the rocks over the course of eight painful years. Brett critiques those in Coates' following who read the book as a prescriptive piece of work like the anti-racist literature of Robin DiAngelo or Ibram X. Kendi. Instead, Brett finds Ta-Nehisi Coates to be a self-aware writer who despairs of and describes the moral decay that corners people into two-dimensional and reductionist thinking.

Articles by Ta-Nehisi Coates in the Atlantic:https://www.theatlantic.com/author/ta-nehisi-coates/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwwuD7BRDBARIsAK_5YhUtv0uyzi9-gVCpZwYBUmtvRAZN-iGn3Ch_3j2VzFX2vv5Nevj8cL8aAvN-EALw_wcB

Brett's Amazon Wish List:https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/15X0LWXA5T9O2/ref=nav_wishlist_lists_3?_encoding=UTF8&type=wishlist