Ta-Nehisi Coates on Chris Matthews’s WTF Statement Yesterday

Chris Matthews said, after watching Obama’s  State of the Union address, “I forgot he was black tonight for an hour.”

Judging by the way Twitter and Facebook starting burning up at the time, for pretty much everyone under the age of 45 this was a major WTF moment. I should say for the record, by the way, that I generally really like Chris Matthews, even if he is kind of obtuse at times, because his politics are generally in the right place and he’s one of the only journalists even attempting to challenge spin and status quo out there. (And for real, not in Olbermann’s theatrical, safe-zone way.) And I admire Matthew’s honesty in openly talking about something that he knows may not be flattering to him. I’m sure a lot of people his age feel similarly about Obama.  But.

I would suggest those folks read Coates’ piece. His take on Matthews and his weird admission is really, really good.