Ta-Nehisi Coates Blogs on the Comic that Influenced His Life & Writing Career

Coates is a journalist and the author of the new memoir The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood, Spiegel & Grau (2008).

Here is an excerpt from the blogpost, Blogging TBS: The Uncanny X-Men:
"I tell you these days, it almost feels cliche to cite the X-Men as an influence. But what can I say? I don't think I'd have much of a memoir, without them. If it's true, it's true. I mentioned in one of my other posts that absence of religion in my house caused me to search for god-like figures in other places. The X-Men seemed cut right out of what you'd expect from Greek mythology, but with a twist--they were like us. I think in some respect all kids feel alienated. I just knew it was my destiny to be living out in Columbia or Randallstown, going to a school where every day I wasn't thinking about how to not catch a bad one. I just knew there'd been some horrible mix-up. And I just knew I was possessed with something that the wider world wasn't recognizing. Later I discovered what that was--a huge ego.But in those days, when I was trapped in a victim narrative, the X-Men were an allegory for my life--or at least how I wished my life was.

Here it was--It's not because of jacked-up fade, my NBA kicks (Next time Buy Adidas), my ashy knees or big lips that I got teased. It's because I can walk through walls, because my bones don't break, and eyes shoot that sort of darts that punch through steel. Later, as I got older, and became conscious, I developed a more mature interpretation and came to see the X-Men, and all mutants, as like a stand-in for West Baltimore, the South Bronx, and North Philly. In other words, the X-Men repped for anyone in the grand scheme who was under pressure. "
Read the rest here: http://www.ta-nehisi.com/2008/03/blogging-tbs--1.html

Too bad there was no black comic book that could have given this much influence and support. Unfortunately, I think we all suffered from the lack of comics that looked like us. Just a few weeks ago, I asked my brother if he would attend the ECCBAC and he replied, "No, I'm only into the classics I grew up with." I nearly cried. I know he has other issues, but this broke my heart. Specifically because I know he is not alone.

Read an excerpt from his new book on The Root, here: http://www.theroot.com/id/46279

X-Men, Coates, comics, writers, books