Unfortunately, Coates’ allegiance to Obama has produced an
impoverished understanding of black history. He reveals this when he
writes: “Ossie Davis famously eulogized Malcolm X as ‘our living, Black
manhood’ and ‘our own Black shining prince.’ Only one man today could
bear those twin honorifics: Barack Obama.”
This gross misunderstanding of who Malcolm X was – the greatest
prophetic voice against the American Empire – and who Barack Obama is –
the first black head of the American Empire – speaks volumes about
Coates’ neoliberal view of the world.
Coates praises Obama as a “deeply moral human being” while remaining silent on the 563 drone strikes, the assassination of US citizens with no trial, the 26,171 bombs dropped on five Muslim-majority countries in 2016 and the 550 Palestinian
children killed with US supported planes in 51 days, etc. He calls
Obama “one of the greatest presidents in American history,” who for
“eight years ... walked on ice and never fell.”
-- Cornel West, "Ta-Nehisi Coates is the neoliberal face of the Black freedom struggle" (GUARDIAN).