We Were Eight Years in Power is an essay collection describing racial politics during the Obama administration. The author of the essays, Ta-Nehisi Coates, explores white supremacy and black identity in the course of the leadership by the first black American president. President Obama strived to make lives better for minority communities. However, his effort was regularly counterattacked by a setup system that favors whites over minorities. Coates was unemployed when Obama was campaigning to become the president. Fortunately, he was given an opportunity to write in The Atlantic magazine.
Coates’ articles appealed to the interests of the masses because people wanted to hear about racial politics. The move saw Coates being hired permanently by The Atlantic magazine. Nevertheless, Coates attributes his employment to mere luck rather than credentials. White Supremacists were unhappy after a black American was declared president. As a result, they ensured they slowed down his effort to unite America. Most of the black persons know little about civil war. The author recommends more study of the civil war by African Americans to know the truth.
The essay collection is aimed at educating people about racial politics in eight years when a black president ruled the US. White Supremacists continued undermining the efforts of blacks although Obama was a president. The election of Donald Trump in 2016 ascertained the continual ruling of white supremacists. Coates alleges that Trump was elected because his campaign was based on the ideologies of white supremacy.
