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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

You don’t just get the good part. You get the bad part, too. You get all of it.
TA-NEHISI COATES

All Bad Get Good Part Person Too
Segregations, by which I mean people living in a certain area, was a planned system.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Area Ceratin Mean Opportunity People Planned Segregation System
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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Apart Black Deficit People Personal Responsibility Some
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
The progressive approach to policy which directly addresses the effects of white supremacy is simple.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Addresses Class Directly Effect Policy Progressive Approach Simple Supremacy White
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
The essence of American racism is disrespect.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Country Disrespect Essence Racism
You know, the thing I always think about, you get up early in the morning to go to work and there’s some dude outside drinking and you come home and the same dude is outside drinking hanging on the corner. And then this engenders a level of anger I think and a level of shame.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Always Anger Corner Dute Early Engender Level Morning Ousdidem Drink Outside Shame Thing
I don’t know how you bridge that contradiction, but I felt that Barack Obama was sincere. It didn’t feel like a line to me.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Bridge Contradiction Country Felt Optimism People Peron Sincere
I was a black boy at the height of the crack era, which meant that my instructors pitched education as the border between those who would prosper in America, and those who would be fed to the great hydra of prison, teenage pregnancy and murder.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Between Black Border Boy Crack Education Era Eye Great Height Hydra Instructor Murder Pitch Pregnancy Prison Teenage
In particular in how [Barack Obama] has directed what you could describe as patronizing remarks to African-American communities.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Community Country Describe Direct Particular People Person
That’s not an accident that Donald Trump didn’t begin with, say, trade or jobs or anything, that he actually began by otherizing the first African-American president of the United States.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Accident Actually Anything Begin Country First Job People Peron President Trade
Reparations would mean the end of yelling “patriotism” while waving a Confederate flag. Reparations would mean a revolution of the American consciousness, a reconciling of our self-image as the great democratizer with the facts of our history.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Democratizer Fact Great History Image Reconciling Self Yelling
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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Certain Future Ignore Just Look Past Present Sin
You can live in the world of myth and be taken seriously.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Live Myth Seriously Taken World
When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Aggressor Calling Expose Halfway Itself Nonviolence Ruse Time War

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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