Ta-Nehisi Coates on addressing
“Addressing the moral failings of black people while ignoring the centuries-old failings of their governments amounts to a bait and switch.”
More Ta-Nehisi Coates quotes
More specifically, Barack Obama is the president of a congenitally racist country, erected upon the plunder of life, liberty, labor, and land. This plunder has not been exclusive to black people.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesTa-Nehisi Coates 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.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesTa-Nehisi Coates Giving opportunities to other people, it’s only right that you might want to, you know, pay that back.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesTa-Nehisi Coates Talk about class and hope no one notices.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesTa-Nehisi Coates 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 CoatesTa-Nehisi Coates What I’m talking about is a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesTa-Nehisi Coates 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 CoatesTa-Nehisi Coates And they necessitate that of the bodies destroyed every year, some wild and disproportionate number of them will be black.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesTa-Nehisi Coates To prevent enabling oppression, we demand that black people be twice as good.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesTa-Nehisi Coates The greatest reward of this constant interrogation, confrontation with the brutality of my country, is that it has freed me from hosts and myths.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesTa-Nehisi Coates The standard progressive approach of the moment is to mix color-conscious moral invective with color-blind public policy.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesTa-Nehisi Coates Never forget that we were enslaved in this country longer than we have been free.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesTa-Nehisi Coates Better you knuckle up and go for yours than have to bow your head and tuck your chain.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesTa-Nehisi Coates Part of that is ordinary African-Americans, you come out of your house and you see the conditions in your neighborhood and you see, folks in your neighborhood doing certain things that, are irresponsible.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesTa-Nehisi Coates All you need to understand is that the officer carries with him the power of the American state and the weight of an American legacy.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesTa-Nehisi Coates In particular in how [Barack Obama] has directed what you could describe as patronizing remarks to African-American communities.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesTa-Nehisi Coates
