Summary

The retrospective eighth note opens with Coates's memory of having lunch with Obama in the midst of the 2016 presidential campaign, especially the topic of whether or not Donald Trump could win. Coates believed he would not win, while Obama thought he could not win, conclusions that Coates sees as foolish now, given the history of the United States. He believes both he and Obama were fooled by their "sense of wonder" (286). While Obama's sense of wonder was rooted in part in his immigrant's perspective on the United States, Coates locates his success in "the chaos" of an America characterized by a "lack of both ceilings and safety nets" (287).

Ultimately, Coates believes his success was due mostly to having had the luck to have lived "in the era of a black president," a point...