What is the theme of Ta Nehisi-Coates”s profile?

The theme of Ta Nehisi-Coates’s profile is about Michelle Obama’s past and how she grew up “rooted in her home, the South Side of Chicago”.

Is there an overarching narrative?

Well there seems to be an overarching narrative about the separation between the way Ta Nehisi-Coates grew up and Michelle Obama. He references a lot of his past in way that the readers can be able to relate too and is interesting enough to keep your attention.

What surprises Coates about Michelle Obama?

Ta Nehisi-Coates was surprised about Michelle Obama because she wasn’t an average angry black women he’s used to seeing. Growing up as a son of a radical Black Panther movement he must have been surrounded by female individuals who spoke from their heart. Much of which we can assume was about black oppression and white supremacy.

How does Coates contextualize Michelle in the context of his own background growing up in Baltimore?

Ta Nehisi-Coates’s background is built upon the idealistic that were impressed upon him as a child growing up within the Black Panthers. Especially during his college years in Howard referring, “It was the mid-’90s, and all of us sported some measure of black pride—be it Afrocentric or ghettocentric”, while Michelle Obama grew up in a black community. This idea of “blackness” growing up seems to spur Ta Nehisi-Coates’s inner soul while for Michelle Obama she didn’t have to face the same struggle.