Sarah Miller’s previous work for The Toast, including other sestinas by David Brooks, can be found here.
Before I talk about you, Ta-Nahesi Coates, I want to say how interesting
it is to be white,
and what a kick I get out of receiving actual cash money to reflect upon the lives of people.
And, although I enjoy my written meditations on all Americans,
there’s something extra special about the African-American
experience. Your whole situation really makes me think.
Gosh, I love to think.
One’s brain – so interesting.
Case in point: You are black and an African-American.
I am white
and a Jewish-American.
(Which means I get pogroms.) But we are both people.
And since we are people
we think.
Me? I tend to be fascinated by American
stuff. Like: “The world is so interesting!”
and, you – perhaps because you are not white –
are fascinated by African-American
stuff. Like: “Being African-American
means living with the brutal awareness that most people
who are white
never think
about how violent and enraging and unending (and not merely interesting)
it is for me and those I love to co-exist with racist, delusional America.”
Mr. Coates, as an American
I feel pressed upon to present my opinion of your opinion of our opinion of African-Americans.
I’m not saying your dark, deeply personal view isn’t interesting.
But I wonder at your dismissal of so many people,
many of whom I happen to think
are terrific, even if they happen to be white.
I accept that part of being white
and being American
and being a columnist means I definitely need to think
and write about African-American
issues and people.
It’s no problem, because it’s all so interesting.
Yes, Mr. Coates, I admit that whites have done a real number on African-Americans.
I want to say out loud to you I don’t think that makes all Americans bad people.
But you really made me think. What a debt of gratitude I owe you for being so interesting.
Tags: beauty, david brooks, poetry, race, sarah miller, sestinas
I was, in fact, waiting for this.
<3<3<3<3
I like to imagine that the entire internet inhaled sharply as soon as the Brooks piece went up, in anticipation of this.
Your whole situation
Interesting
In case there was ANY doubt, the misspelling of TNC’s name is very, very intentional.
if anything, the spelling of TNC’s name is too close to being accurate.
The world is all about David Brooks – we just live in it.
This is just maximally splendiferous.
I think Dave Brooks may be burning fatties again. I expect his next column just might be about the pale part of the base of his thumbnail and how its humble perfection validates the terrificness of life for everyone even distended-belly starving kids in subsaharan Africa.
But most of all thankyouthankyouthankyou.
The scarier part of David Brook’s columns is the comments section. Brrrr.
Yeah, sometimes the Toast’s comment section gets in on the joke in the article, and I thought that this would be a good one to try that… but no. No no no no.
THE ACID OF EXCESSIVE REALISM. I can’t get that phrase out of my head because it just sums everything up. “The problem with your reality is that it’s too excessive, Mr. Coates. Why can’t you just believe in the American Dream like a normal (white) person. The Jews did and it worked for us! It had absolutely nothing to do with our skin color! This pessimism is really just distasteful, Mr. Coates. Why, did you know there’s an African-American president?”
John Metta – Why I No Longer Talk To White People About Race
That article poses a question for me: does Brooks not know what is going on today in this country (in terms of the extent of structural racism that exists) and, if so, how is he allowed to be a NYT columnist? Or does he know and this delusional denial of reality is the only remaining strategy left for white conservatives to protect their privilege? Either option is incredibly infuriating and rage-inducing.
He does not know that structural racism is a thing and that is precisely what allows him to be a NYT columnist!
CAN A WHITE MAN LIVE <–summary of every single David Brooks column
I <3 you, Sarah.
THESE JUST GET BETTER AND BETTER
This is so perfect. “excessive realism” is just too ridiculous a phrase. As if it’s bad to accurately describe the world as it is, not as it is in Brooks’ “not all white people” mind.
But Brooks goes further; he actually slips the knife in TNC’s back with this closing observation: “By dissolving the [American] dream under the acid of an excessive realism, you trap generations in the past and destroy the guiding star that points to a better future. Maybe you will find my reactions irksome”
Now TNC is “trapping generations in the past.” Yeah that’s fucking irksome asshole!
REALLY. Really, TNC is the one “trapping generations in the past” not, y’know, the systemic racism. Really.
(This is why I didn’t read the original Brooks piece. *rage*)
I still can’t get over “excessive realism.”
I’m still wondering what would qualify as “non-excessive realism” for Brooksie. Maybe a reassuring mix of D.W. Griffith and David O. Selznick?
I’m thinking 40 % Langston Hughes, 35% Upton Sinclair and 25% Salvador Dali would be an acceptably realistic combo.
For a second I was confused because I thought “wait, wasn’t the white guy who was being an ass about TNC named Freddie? there was a hashtag and everything?” before I realized that this is a completely DIFFERENT white guy who is ALSO being an ass about TNC.
so many white asses!
Perfect. So perfect.
I'm still wondering what would qualify as "non-excessive realism" for Brooksie. Maybe a reassuring mix of D.W. Griffith and David O. Selznick?
thank you for pushing this asshattery through the machinery of the sestina form. the repetition is very good for reducing the reductive reducing of such thought patterns, articles, and men to a beautfully bald piece of badness.
Has Brooks been hanging out with Karl Rove? “Excessive realism” is just the kind of sin you’d expect from the pesky “reality-based community.”
Really makes you opinion. Interesting pogrom. Edmund Burke.
Really makes you opinion. Interesting pogrom. Edmund Burke.