{"id":96135,"date":"2016-05-15T11:22:16","date_gmt":"2016-05-15T19:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=96135"},"modified":"2016-05-15T11:22:16","modified_gmt":"2016-05-15T19:22:16","slug":"poverty-expert-ta-nehisi-coates-bails-on-newly-purchased-2-1-million-home-after-media-attention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=96135","title":{"rendered":"Poverty Expert Ta-Nehisi Coates Bails on Newly-Purchased $2.1 Million Home After Media Attention"},"content":{"rendered":"

REPORT<\/a>: Ta-Nehisi Coates, the award-winning journalist and author specializing in racial justice and black poverty, has cancelled plans to move into the posh Brooklyn brownstone he recently purchased for $2.1 million, citing personal safety concerns amid a storm of unwanted media attention.<\/p>\n

The New York Post was first to report on the purchase, which was conducted through a limited-liability corporation established by Coates and his wife in an effort to conceal their identity.<\/p>\n

Coates has become a prominent thought-leader in part due to the success of his 2015 memoir, \u201cBetween the World and Me,\u201d a letter to his son about the history of racial injustice in America. It was one of the most discussed books in the country among university faculty members and New York Times subscribers, and won the National Book Award for non-fiction.<\/p>\n

Coates, who used the proceeds from the successful memoir to finance the purchase of the brownstone in the Prospect-Leffert Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn, expressed dismay at having to abandon his dream home:<\/p>\n

[Y]ou can\u2019t really be a human being and not want some place to retreat into yourself, some place to collapse, some place to be at peace. That\u2019s just neurology. One shouldn\u2019t get in the habit of crying about having a best-selling book. But you can\u2019t really sell enough books to become superhuman, to salve that longing for home.
\nCoates explained that, after his purchase of the home was publicized, his family would not be able to live there due to safety concerns and the perpetual stream of fans \u201cshowing up at your door (this happened once) or waiting for you on your stoop.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur old neighborhood was not as quiet as we thought,\u201d Coates wrote. \u201cNothing is quiet anymore\u2014least of all us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/em> published a sympathetic write-up of Coates’ decision to cancel the move without mentioning some of the criticism directed at the author for his expensive taste:<\/p>\n

\n

T. Coates pimped them white liberals all the way to a $2.1 million crib in Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

— Ella Septima-Hamer (@Jbrous14) May 7, 2016<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n