The West/Coates debate is a microcosmic reflection of the larger disagreements between hardcore Marxists and identity politics.
West's work ostensibly focuses on race, but he's a Marxist at heart--a member of the old guard, along with other staunchers like Jameson and Zizek. For him, the contemporary geography of race is dependent on the history of economic disenfranchisement and class hierarchy. Whether capitalism is important or not for Coates, I won't speculate (I'm not super familiar with his longer work, only his shorter articles); but it's true that he doesn't focus on it. This is why West labels him the "neoliberal" face of black struggle.
Personally, the debate itself is more interesting than whether one side is correct.
