McDonnell Apology 'Incredibly Important Step'

Ta-Nehisi Coates doesn’t want to fight with conservatives over race all the time. “I want so bad to take up skiing,” he writes, “to drive across Montana and think of nothing of being the only black person for miles.” That’s why he’s giving Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell credit for apologizing over the omission of slavery in the declaration of Confederate History Month. McDonnell “must have known that his actions would be reported as a ‘surrender,’” but he did it anyway.

"I think I can speak for my folks, when I say the vast majority of us long to be done with this business," Coates writes at his Atlantic blog. "I think, and so dearly hope, that we're headed that way. And I think that McDonnell made a small, but incredibly important, step to getting us closer. Whatever my many disagreements with him, in this specific business, I salute him for doing something we so rarely see these days—committing an act of political courage." (More Bob McDonnell stories.)