what did you find interesting?
so, starting from the beginning.
1. author is an undergrad and is performing on tv. he's either a fantastic writer for a musician or a fantastic musician for an undergraduate essayist.
2. photo of coates, plus later criticism of coates. echoes the article by mcwhorter. if i was going to pick out someone to personify what i find unuseful, illogical or dishonest about identity politics, coates would be about infinity -1 on my list. so it's interesting to me in a half-gossipy sort of way that two black writers went after him hard.
3. the racial/ethnic composition of performance artists. actually, i think more interesting than the author's discussion of for which ethnicities it may be allowed and for which it may not be, is the idea that it is de facto allowed for everybody if they just don't talk about it. if it becomes known that it is a deliberate artistic choice, it (may) engender controversy. which is sorta backwards, imo.
4. what i would identify as the central theme - to what extent, if any, is it ethical/logical to treat individuals differently based on group histories? i don't think this is an easy issue, and i thought the author treated it with insight and honesty (i also think coates does).