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Ta-Nehisi Coates, the award-winning writer who has become one of the nation’s most influential voices on cultural and political issues, particularly touching on race relations, said Wednesday that he would be voting for Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

The decision by Mr. Coates, the recipient of a MacArthur “genius grant” and the author of “Between the World and Me,” winner of the National Book Award, came as something of a surprise: Last month, Mr. Coates, author of a widely read 2014 Atlantic essay, “The Case for Reparations,” wrote two articles sharply criticizing Mr. Sanders over his opposition to reparations for slavery.

“I have tried to avoid this question, but yes, I will be voting for Senator Sanders,” Mr. Coates said in an interview with Democracy Now! that aired Wednesday.

Mr. Coates said he was “stunned” by Mr. Sanders’s rise and by his ability to compete with Hillary Clinton.

“Had you told me this like a year ago, I certainly would not have expected, you know, an avowed socialist to be putting up these sorts of numbers, and actually be contending for the Democratic Party nomination, but I think it’s awesome,” Mr. Coates said. “I think it’s great.”

Backing from Mr. Coates, 40, could bolster Mr. Sanders’s efforts to court black voters as the Democratic primary contest moves into more diverse primary states, where African-Americans make up an enormously important constituency.

In an interview with The New York Times on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Coates said he was concerned about Mrs. Clinton’s ties to Wall Street and her past stances on criminal justice.

“The Goldman Sachs thing really bothered me. You have somebody taking $600,000 a year and not really disclosing what they talked about, you know, in a country where wealth inequality is so, so huge,” Mr. Coates said of Mrs. Clinton. “You’re living in another world now.”

He added that he was also concerned about the criminal justice bills passed under President Bill Clinton. “I’m a kid born in the 1970s,” Mr. Coates said. “I came up in the early 1990s, the crime bill from 1994 is huge. I understand, Senator Sanders voted for the crime bill. I got that. But there’s a clip of Secretary Clinton. They are talking about criminal justice policy and she uses a term that — it just chills me when I hear it — and that is super predator. I am of that generation of super predators. That’s where I come from and our current policy today has been an absolute, absolute disaster.”

Mr. Coates also said he liked having more than one Democratic candidate in the race. “I need people to understand, and I want people to understand that the world we live in now is not the world that we have to live in,” Mr. Coates said. “It’s really, really important to me that we have a broad range of of options in terms of the electorate. So for me, I think the idea that somebody is standing up as an avowed socialist and is actually contending — it doesn’t matter if that person wins or not from some perspectives because folks will see that and say damn things that we thought we couldn’t say, we actually can.”

Yet, Mr. Coates said he would not be helping to elect Mr. Sanders by making an appearances and that he would have preferred not to reveal that he planned to vote for him.

“I’m not going to make any calls. I’m not going to volunteer. I’m not doing anything,” Mr. Coates said. “I answered the question because I was asked the question. But, I just want to be clear. I reject the term supporter. I reject the term endorsement. I’m a voter.”

Mr. Coates’s announcement comes as Mr. Sanders is pushing hard to broaden his support among African-Americans. He met Wednesday morning with the Rev. Al Sharpton in New York. Last week, he won the endorsement of Benjamin T. Jealous, a former N.A.A.C.P. president, who vowed to campaign for him in South Carolina.

And the lawyer for the family of Walter L. Scott, who was fatally shot by a police officer in South Carolina, withdrew his support from Mrs. Clinton and endorsed Mr. Sanders last month.

Mr. Coates also said he supports Mr. Sanders’s plan to make public colleges and universities tuition free and to lower the interest rates on student debt. He added that he is deeply interested in the issues of economic inequality and appreciates that Mr. Sanders has made them a core of his candidacy.

“The way Senator Sanders has made this a huge part of his campaign from jump, I mean, that resonates with me, personally,” Mr. Coates said. “I haven’t written too much about wealth inequality in this country, but as a citizen I think about it obviously all the time.”

Mr. Coates said he isn’t sure when he decided to vote for Mr. Sanders, but he said his 15-year-old son is a big supporter of Mr. Sanders. The writer also said he hopes people will take the time to form their own opinions of the presidential candidates.

“I would hate for this to be an endorsement,” Mr. Coates said. “What I want folks to do more than anything in this world is not vote for who I’m voting for. Don’t follow me dude. Don’t follow me. I want you to scrutinize your candidate. I want you to scrutinize your history. I want people to think for themselves. This is what I’m doing.”