I agree with you for the most part, except when you lump Coates, Ridley, and Ewing in as "celebrities" as if they are all the same, and they are not. Roxane Gay comes closer to having a name in liberal literary circles than Ridley or Ewing (and that's despite Ridley's award-winning Hollywood career). The nature of the celebrity wasn't the same for Coates, Ridley, and Ewing. Coates was on another level-especially when he came onto the book. Coates was the literary liberal/progressive scribe of the Obama years, he was becoming the go-to voice due to his political writings, and he even testified about reparations before Congress. Coates appealed to a larger audience than Ridley or Ewing. Even though Ridley had worked on award winning Hollywood projects he was not well known, and Ewing is known more in comics circles than outside of them (from what I gather).