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When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

I want to be really, really clear about this. It doesn’t mean that everyone or even the majority of people who voted for Donald Trump are racist or white supremacists or anything like that. But what it means is that it’s not a mistake that Trump began his campaign with birthersism .
TA-NEHISI COATES

Campaign Country Dumb Few Folk History Idiot Lot Mean Mistake Present White
[Grew up in Hawaii] that gave [Barack Obama] a kind of optimism, an ability to see things, you know, and frankly, an ability to trust, you know, in his fellow, you know, white countrymen in a way that I, for instance, you know, and the vast majority of black people I know never really could.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Ability Frankly Gave Optimism People Thing Trust White
What I am telling you is that you do not need to know to love, and it is right that you feel it all in any moment. And it is right that you see it through–that you are amazed, then curious, then belligerent, then heartbroken, then numb. You have the right to all of it.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Feel Heartbroken Know Moment Need Right Tell
The standard progressive approach of the moment is to mix color-conscious moral invective with color-blind public policy.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Approach Blind Color Conscious Invective Moment Moral Policy Progressive Public Standard
Humans also tend to find community to be pleasurable, and within the boundaries of community relationships, words.
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Boundary Community Human Ironic Pleasurable Relationship Self Word
[Donald Trump] went on to, you know, otherize Muslims, otherize Latinos, otherize women, that he built out from that. And it can be true that a unique, you know, individual like Barack Obama can succeed in spite of that and still be the case that that force is quite, quite strong.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Built Country Know Muslim Out Person President Strong Succeed Unique
It was a week after Donald Trump had won. And initially he was still optimistic. He felt that things would be OK ultimately. And I have to tell you, this is the area where, you know, I see, you know, some degree of contradiction.
TA-NEHISI COATES

After Believe Country Optimistic People Person President Running Won
I did not know then that this is what life is – just when you master the geometry of one world, it slips away, and suddenly again, you’re swarmed by strange shapes and impossible angles.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Geometry Impossible Life Master One Shape Strange Suddenly World
I think, as a writer, I’m in my own head.
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Head Own Thinking Writer
Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.
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Compound Country Debt Fivem Eyar Moral Policy Racist Reckon Thirty Whole
What I’m talking about is a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal.
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Lead National Reckoning Renewal Spiritual Talk
An America that looks away is ignoring not just the sins of the past but the sins of the present and the certain sins of the future.
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Certain Future Ignore Just Look Past Present Sin
You don’t just get the good part. You get the bad part, too. You get all of it.
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All Bad Get Good Part Person Too
What it is is that Barack Obama was raised by a white mother and two white grandparents who, A, told him he was black and that there was nothing wrong with being black.
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Black Country Grandparent Mother People Person President Raise Told Two White
This feeling African-Americans have, this skepticism towards the police and the skepticism that the police show towards African-Americans is actually quite old. And it may be one of the most durable aspects of the relationship between black people and their country really in our history.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Country Feel Many People Person Police Skepticism Towards
I’m asking you as an American to see all of the freedoms that you enjoy and see how they are rooted in things that the country you belong to condoned or actively participated in the past.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Actively Ask Belong Country Freedom Long Participate Rooted

When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse.

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When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse.

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Popular Authors

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