Over at The Atlantic, Ta-Nahesi Coates objects to my attempt to relay a mildly amusing “small anecdote” from my inauguration coverage yesterday. You can read it here, but I mused on someone else’s reaction to whether Tupac Shakur should be heralded alongside Barack Obama and notable civil rights leaders. Coates responds:

Only a two-dimensional caricature listens to Tupac, and then decides to be a bad father. Only a two-dimensional caricature sees the election of Obama and then says, “Hmmm, guess this means I can’t listen to Jeezy anymore.” Only two-dimensional caricatures say, “Hmm, got a black president, better pull my pants up.”
In the real world, where real people live, and breath real air, a multitude of forces–cultural, social, economic, etc.–weigh on people. Barack Obama will certainly change something about black culture. But anyone who’s spent any time around actual people should know better then to act like they know what that is, or how it will play out.

In my original post, I don’t think I came anywhere near suggesting that I know how black culture is going to “play out” in the era of Obama. Indeed, who would be foolish enough to say that? Again, I offered up “one small anecdote that suggests the era of hip-hop might be ending and the age of Obama might be beginning” — not exactly a bold declaration I know where things are headed for Race In America. Considering he chides me in the first line of his post for a lack of “subtlety and nuance,” Coates’ umbrage here seems particularly unwarranted.