I can understand being off put by Coates' approach. Hell my mom was in love with the idea of Coates as a new (to her) black voice and enjoyed many of his articles, but when she read his book she came away quite turned off by the overwhelming despair and lack of any religious (or hopeful) undercurrent. I get that.
However there's a difference between responding to Coates' arguments with "well things are getting better in many ways, and progress continues" and Brooks' "but what about the American Dream? Don't you believe in America? Why do you hate America." This is made worse yet by the start of the article where he basically says "ok, I see how ugly America can be for and to blacks" only to turn around and ask why a black man can be so upset/negative. It makes the intro to the article seem insincere in hindsight.
I'd imagine Brooks is praying for Obama to hug him and tell him everything is going to be alright.