What it means to be a public intellectual - POLITICO.com: One, Coates is wrong when he writes that I believe "considering Harris-Perry an intellectual is somehow evidence of inferior thinking." Harris-Perry is obviously an intellectual, and an incredibly smart one at that. Coates is also an intellectual, and probably one of the more important columnists in American politics today. I read both of their work with relative frequency, and admire it.
What I said was: I do not believe Harris-Perry is "America's foremost public intellectual," meaning that of all the public intellectuals in this country, she is not the most influential or important. What I suggested was that stating as much called one's own intellectual credibility into question, because it would take leaps and bounds to come to the conclusion that Harris-Perry occupies a more significant place in American intellectual thought than the towering figures who wear that title. That those figures are all white men is certainly an unfortunate result of America's troubled history.
However, to deduce from that assertion that I believe Harris-Perry is not an intellectual is itself an anti-intellectual act. It requires supplanting what is in one's head for what it is I actually said. It requires an assumption of intention that has no relevance to my own. It is lazy.