What Ta-Nehisi Coates got right

In his original article responding to Rep. Paul Ryan's remarks about the lack of a work culture amongst inner city men (he's since written a second), Ta-Nehisi Coates makes what I think is his most important point here:

...is the culture of West Baltimore actually less virtuous than the culture of Wall Street? I've seen no such evidence.

It reminded me of something Derrick Jensen wrote in his book The Culture of Make Believe (p. 278-279).

I've heard it said that approximately the same number of people control 95 percent of the world's economy as are in solitary confinement in the United States. There can be little doubt as to which group has killed the greater number of people.

The truth is - if we want to go on moralizing about dangerous cultures, how about the one that developed in the Bush/Cheney White House that brought us rationales for torture and a war based on lies? Of course that says nothing about a culture that used every tool available to it to categorize black and native people as subhuman in order to justify slavery and genocide.

So yes...if we are going to look at cultures that breed violence, fear and hatred - lets go the whole nine yards. Why stop with black inner city men?

I'll tell you why. Its because the neanderthals like Paul Ryan and Charles Murray who spew this stuff are too afraid to look in the mirror and see themselves. They don't have an ounce of the kind of courage displayed by Lucia McBath. They're cowards. End of story.