[Winning the White House was an achievement], but as an African-American, [Barack Obama], I think the symbolism is in how he conducted himself.
TA-NEHISI COATESThe Knowledge Rule 2080: From maggots to men, the world is a corner bully.
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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With segregation, with the isolation of the injured and the robbed, comes the concentration of disadvantage.
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Humans also tend to find community to be pleasurable, and within the boundaries of community relationships, words.
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Is the Jewish race thriftier than the Arab race?
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The Knowledge Rule 2080: From maggots to men, the world is a corner bully.
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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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If George Washington crossing the Delaware matters, so must his ruthless pursuit of the runagate Oney Judge.
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And they necessitate that of the bodies destroyed every year, some wild and disproportionate number of them will be black.
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The progressive approach to policy which directly addresses the effects of white supremacy is simple.
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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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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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The essence of American racism is disrespect.
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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 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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Never forget that for 250 years black people were born into chains-whole generations followed by more generations who knew nothing but chains.
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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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These were the days when I powerfully believed Breyers and Entenmann’s to be pioneers in the field of antidepressants.
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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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Segregations, by which I mean people living in a certain area, was a planned system.
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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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It was a week after Donald Trump had won. And initially he was still optimistic. He felt that things would be OK ultimately. And I have to tell you, this is the area where, you know, I see, you know, some degree of contradiction.
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[Barack Obama] grew up in Hawaii, far, far removed from the most, you know, sort of violent, you know, tendencies of Jim Crow and segregation. He wasn’t directly exposed to that. He was untraumatized.
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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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I am not asking you as a white person to see yourself as an enslaver.
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Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal.
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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.
TA-NEHISI COATES