What I’m talking about is a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal.
TA-NEHISI COATESAll you need to understand is that the officer carries with him the power of the American state and the weight of an American legacy.
More Ta-Nehisi Coates Quotes
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[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.
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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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Never forget that we were enslaved in this country longer than we have been free.
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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.
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The progressive approach to policy which directly addresses the effects of white supremacy is simple.
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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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The standard progressive approach of the moment is to mix color-conscious moral invective with color-blind public policy.
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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.
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It was made that way. And what you have is a system in which people are there to be exploited.
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In particular in how [Barack Obama] has directed what you could describe as patronizing remarks to African-American communities.
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To prevent enabling oppression, we demand that black people be twice as good.
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Is the Jewish race thriftier than the Arab race?
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The symbolism was in – and this sounds really, really small, but it’s actually big for African-Americans – the symbolism was not in being an embarrassment, but to being a figure that folks were actually proud of.
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You don’t just get the good part. You get the bad part, too. You get all of it.
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Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.
TA-NEHISI COATES