I think the sad fact is, there’s a long history in this country at looking at African-American as subhuman.
TA-NEHISI COATESRacism is, among other things.
More Ta-Nehisi Coates Quotes
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Never forget that we were enslaved in this country longer than we have been free.
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I think the president [Barack Obama] adopted some of that same language, but took it into the White House.
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Giving opportunities to other people, it’s only right that you might want to, you know, pay that back.
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Often ironic and self-deprecating – are always spoken that take on other meanings when uttered by others.
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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.
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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.
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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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Racism is, among other things.
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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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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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What I’m talking about is a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal.
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I would flip this the other way and say over 90 percent of African-Americans voted against Donald Trump.
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[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.
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The progressive approach to policy which directly addresses the effects of white supremacy is simple.
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And I think that’s reflected in the fact that, when we have problems that really are problems of employment, that are really problems of mental health, that are really problems of drugs, our answer is the police.
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