Quote:
Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield
I've tried to read Coates in the past. He and Sullivan might want to bury the hatchet. They've much in common, most notably the ability to write pages and pages without offering any tight, logical points. They also like to complain. They'd do quite well complimenting each other's pedantic ramblings on the same website.
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I wasn't going to respond to this, but what the hell, it's Friday.
Sullivan rhapsodizes about the good old days, when he and Coates were close. Coates says, we weren't close, and because of the power imbalances inherent in that situation, I had to pretend to take Sullivan seriously when he said racist stuff.
Why would Coates want to "bury the hatchet"? If you read what he said, he was burying the hatchet before, but now he doesn't have to pretend not to notice when someone like Sullivan questions his humanity.
If Sullivan really thought he was Coates's friend, he would apologize. It's not like Coates did anything to him.
Your suggestion that they're similar misses the whole point here, which is about the way that the power dynamics have changed. Back then, Sullivan was a big name, and Coates was a nobody. Coates had to put up with Sullivan. Now things have changed. Sullivan is a has-been, Sullivan's views on race seem not only dated but are starting to smell rancid, and Coates is a star.
