What I’m talking about is a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal.
TA-NEHISI COATES[Winning the White House was an achievement], but as an African-American, [Barack Obama], I think the symbolism is in how he conducted himself.
More Ta-Nehisi Coates Quotes
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My mom used to tell me, I can’t use this phrase on the radio – but basically don’t be one of those dudes hanging on the corner.
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The essence of American racism is disrespect.
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Just because you came here in 1880, 1950, whenever, you became an American. You get to celebrate July 4th like every other American.
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Segregations, by which I mean people living in a certain area, was a planned system.
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They’re right there waiting for it. A community of people who’ve been denied wealth, denied wealth-building opportunities, are right there. And the banks went right after them.
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I think there’s a sort of, you know, very thin way of reading this that says, well, Barack Obama is biracial thus that gives him some understanding of both white America and black America, but that’s not really it.
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[Winning the White House was an achievement], but as an African-American, [Barack Obama], I think the symbolism is in how he conducted himself.
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Any time you have, you know, upwards of 90 percent of a demographic voting against somebody, that’s a statement.
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What sets black people apart is not some deficit in personal responsibility. It’s the weight on our shoulders. That is what’s actually different. We have the weight and burden of history.
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The unearned skepticism of one group of humans joined to the unearned sympathy for another.
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Humans also tend to find community to be pleasurable, and within the boundaries of community relationships, words.
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Talk about class and hope no one notices.
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With segregation, with the isolation of the injured and the robbed, comes the concentration of disadvantage.
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When you have a policy of making sure that African Americans cannot build wealth, of plundering African American communities of wealth.
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I think the president [Barack Obama] adopted some of that same language, but took it into the White House.
TA-NEHISI COATES