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To prevent enabling oppression, we demand that black people be twice as good.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Giving opportunities to other people, it’s only right that you might want to, you know, pay that back.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Back Giving Know might Opportunity Other Pay People Right Want
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
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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Certain Future Ignore Just Look Past Present Sin
I want to be really, really clear about this. It doesn’t mean that everyone or even the majority of people who voted for Donald Trump are racist or white supremacists or anything like that. But what it means is that it’s not a mistake that Trump began his campaign with birthersism .
TA-NEHISI COATES

Campaign Country Dumb Few Folk History Idiot Lot Mean Mistake Present White
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.
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Between Black Border Boy Crack Education Era Eye Great Height Hydra Instructor Murder Pitch Pregnancy Prison Teenage
Never forget that we were enslaved in this country longer than we have been free.
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Been Country Enslave Free Longer never People Year
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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Biracial Country Know People Person Reading Say Some Sort Thinking Under White
Any time you have, you know, upwards of 90 percent of a demographic voting against somebody, that’s a statement.
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Demographics Percent Somebody Statement Upward Voting
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.
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Democratizer Fact Great History Image Reconciling Self Yelling
What I’m talking about is a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal.
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Lead National Reckoning Renewal Spiritual Talk
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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Actually Always Embarrassment Folk Future Really Small Sound Symbolism
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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Basically Corner Dude Hang Me Mom Phrase Phrases Radio Use
Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal.
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Country Equal Humdres Separate Slavery Two Year
The greatest reward of this constant interrogation, confrontation with the brutality of my country, is that it has freed me from hosts and myths.
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Brutality Confrontation Constant Country Fred Greatest Host Interrogation Myth Reward
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.
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Always Anger Corner Dute Early Engender Level Morning Ousdidem Drink Outside Shame Thing
In particular in how [Barack Obama] has directed what you could describe as patronizing remarks to African-American communities.
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Community Country Describe Direct Particular People Person

To prevent enabling oppression, we demand that black people be twice as good.

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To prevent enabling oppression, we demand that black people be twice as good.

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