This, of course, is flipping Martin Luther King's famous quote about "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice." It's upsetting to think that Coates is saying that the reality is that the arc bends toward death, not justice.

See:

http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/11/15/arc-of-universe/

and

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129609461