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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.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Part of that is ordinary African-Americans, you come out of your house and you see the conditions in your neighborhood and you see, folks in your neighborhood doing certain things that, are irresponsible.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Condition Drinking Folk Home House Morning Neighbourhood Ordinary Country Part See
[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 COATES

Achievement Country House Symbolism Think Thinking White Winning
I am not asking you as a white person to see yourself as an enslaver.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Ask Country Enslaver Past Person White Yourself
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
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
[Grew up in Hawaii] that gave [Barack Obama] a kind of optimism, an ability to see things, you know, and frankly, an ability to trust, you know, in his fellow, you know, white countrymen in a way that I, for instance, you know, and the vast majority of black people I know never really could.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Ability Frankly Gave Optimism People Thing Trust White
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
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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Actually Always Embarrassment Folk Future Really Small Sound Symbolism
And they necessitate that of the bodies destroyed every year, some wild and disproportionate number of them will be black.
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Black Destroy Dispoortioante Necessitate Number Them
If George Washington crossing the Delaware matters, so must his ruthless pursuit of the runagate Oney Judge.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Country Cross Delaware Judge Judging Matter Pursuit Runagate Ruthless
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.
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Country Feel Many People Person Police Skepticism Towards
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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Acquisition Best Communication Knowledge Other People Writing
An unsegregated America might see poverty, and all its effects, spread across the country with no particular bias toward skin color. Instead, the concentration of poverty has been paired with a concentration of melanin.
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Color Concentrate Country Effect Instead Melanin Paired Poverty Spreadma Cross
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.
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After Bank Community Denied Opportunities People Right Wait Wealth
Better you knuckle up and go for yours than have to bow your head and tuck your chain.
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Better Bow Chaim Go Head Knuckle Tuck
I think the sad fact is, there’s a long history in this country at looking at African-American as subhuman.
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Country History Long Look Said Thinking

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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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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