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When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Apart Black Deficit People Personal Responsibility Some
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

Feel Heartbroken Know Moment Need Right Tell
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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

After Bank Community Denied Opportunities People Right Wait Wealth
This feeling African-Americans have, this skepticism towards the police and the skepticism that the police show towards African-Americans is actually quite old. And it may be one of the most durable aspects of the relationship between black people and their country really in our history.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Country Feel Many People Person Police Skepticism Towards
Addressing the moral failings of black people while ignoring the centuries-old failings of their governments amounts to a bait and switch.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Addressing Amount Bait Black Century Fail Failing Government Ignore Moral People Switch
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

Country Dumb Folk History Idiot Lot Mock Pretend
You don’t just get the good part. You get the bad part, too. You get all of it.
TA-NEHISI COATES

All Bad Get Good Part Person Too
When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Aggressor Calling Expose Halfway Itself Nonviolence Ruse Time War
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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Answer Employment Fact Health Poice Problem Really Reflect
When you have a policy of making sure that African Americans cannot build wealth, of plundering African American communities of wealth.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Built Communities Country Giving Make Opportunity People Plunder Policy Sure Wealth
Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Compound Country Debt Fivem Eyar Moral Policy Racist Reckon Thirty Whole
You know, it felt like him reverting back to what was in his bones and that’s, you know, optimism and a deep belief in, you know, American institutions and the American people.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Back Belief Bone Country Deep Institution Know Optimistic People Revert
Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Country Equal Humdres Separate Slavery Two Year
Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Broad Hatred Merely More Often Racism Simplist Sympathy Toward
Racism is, among other things.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Among Group Other Racism Skepticism Thing
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

When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse.

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When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse.

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Popular Authors

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