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Colbert: Isn’t There A ‘Chance For Change’ Once ‘White People Become The Minority’?

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Justin Caruso Contributor
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Late night host Stephen Colbert asked guest Ta-Nehisi Coates Monday whether there would be more hope in America “as white people become the minority.”

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Colbert asked Coates, “I’m not asking you to make sh*t up. I’m asking you if you personally see any chance for change in America?”

“Maybe, maybe,” Coates answered. “I would have to make sh*t up to actually answer that question in a satisfying way.”

Colbert then said, “What about the changing demographics in America? We have a constitutional system, democracy itself–while not rubber is plastic–and as the demographics change, as white people become the minority in the country which is coming, do you see a chance for?”

Coates interrupted, “Your question presumes there is a static definition of whiteness and this is the first time there’s been demographic change before…”

Coates is a writer for The Atlantic and the author of a book on race in America titled, “Between The World and Me.”

Coates has also previously called 9/11 first responders inhuman. In reference to New York’s police and firefighters, Coates said, “They were not human to me. Black, white, or whatever, they were menaces of nature; they were the fire, the comet, the storm, which could–with no justification–shatter my body.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates is in the news again for a feature story he wrote about Donald Trump called “The First White President.” Coates alleges that Trump’s “ideology is white supremacy” and his presidency is a reaction to Barack Obama becoming the first black president. He also describes Donald Trump as the “most dangerous president.”

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