What I’m talking about is a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal.
TA-NEHISI COATESI 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.
More Ta-Nehisi Coates Quotes
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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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Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.
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Just because you came here in 1880, 1950, whenever, you became an American. You get to celebrate July 4th like every other American.
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Never forget that we were enslaved in this country longer than we have been free.
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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.
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Is the Jewish race thriftier than the Arab race?
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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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Any time you have, you know, upwards of 90 percent of a demographic voting against somebody, that’s a statement.
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To prevent verifying stereotypes, we pledge to never eat a slice a watermelon in front of white people.
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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.
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Barack Obama is the president of the United States of America.
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I mean, the president, you know, at one point when he was campaigning said I believe that Donald Trump was not qualified to run a 7-Eleven.
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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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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.
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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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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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Reparations would mean the end of scarfing hot dogs on the Fourth of July while denying the facts of our heritage.
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Talk about class and hope no one notices.
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I think, as a writer, I’m in my own head.
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If George Washington crossing the Delaware matters, so must his ruthless pursuit of the runagate Oney Judge.
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I am not asking you as a white person to see yourself as an enslaver.
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The best part of writing is not the communication of knowledge to other people, but the acquisition and synthesizing of knowledge for oneself.
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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 .
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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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Lot of folks like to mock dumb history, and pretend it’s just a few idiots. Isn’t. It’s the country.
TA-NEHISI COATES