We Were Eight Years in Power is a collection of essays by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Coates writes about white supremacy and black identity in eight years during the presidency of Barack Obama. The author claims that his career was elevated after Obama became the president. Each essay is analogous to each year of Obama’s presidency. Before Obama ascended into power, Coates was struggling financially as a blogger in The Atlantic magazine. Basically, the essays explore the inability of the US to escape from the shackles of White Supremacy. According to Coates, Obama had many plans but he could not implement them due to the challenges he encountered as a black president.
All the essays seem to examine the challenges of people of color despite Obama winning the presidency. Obama won the presidency when Coates was struggling to provide for his family as a writer. Although he climbed the career ladder and became a senior editor at The Atlantic magazine, Coates argues that he was still facing obstacles as a black person. African Americans are perceived as inferior by White Supremacists. Such perception has slowed down the progress of blacks in the US.
Coates describes Obama as a visionary leader who devoted himself to helping Americans. However, his vision was partially achieved because White Supremacists were not comfortable with his presidency. In 2016, Donald Trump won the presidency because he was appealing to the interests of whites. Trump’s win for presidency justified the systematic racism practiced in America.
