We Were Eight Years in Power Summary
Coates, Ta-Nehisi

We Were Eight Years in Power Overview

Ta-Nahesi Coates’s 2017 We Were Eight Years in Power is a part memoir, part essay collection that attempts to capture the meaning of the Obama presidency. Comprised of eight essays with brief, highly personal introductions, the collection traces the evolution of Coates’s understanding of white supremacy, black masculinity, the writer’s life, and the difficult question of why white supremacy and racism are such intractable parts of the American experience. Coates deftly tackles such issues as reparations for African Americans, the meaning of Donald Trump’s election, and mass incarceration.