black
grey
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And I think, like, there’s a crucial difference between being, you know, Joe Schmo in the neighborhood and being the head, you know, of the government that, you know, in many ways is largely responsible for those conditions in the first place.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

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
[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
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
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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Color Concentrate Country Effect Instead Melanin Paired Poverty Spreadma Cross
I think, as a writer, I’m in my own head.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Head Own Thinking Writer
You can live in the world of myth and be taken seriously.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Live Myth Seriously Taken World
I think the sad fact is, there’s a long history in this country at looking at African-American as subhuman.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Country History Long Look Said Thinking
With segregation, with the isolation of the injured and the robbed, comes the concentration of disadvantage.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Color Come Concentration Country Disadvantage Injured Isolation Robbed Segregation
[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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Celebrity Country Crow Hawaii Know Man Most Personality President Remove Segregation Tendency Violent
[E]mpathy – not squishy self-serving conflict avoidance – is the hand-maiden, not the enemy, of reason and intellectual inquiry.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Avoidance Conflict Empathy Hand Intellectual Maiden Self Serve
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
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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Black Country Legacy Need Numbers Offer Power State Understand Weight Year
To prevent verifying stereotypes, we pledge to never eat a slice a watermelon in front of white people.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Eat never People Pledge Prevent Slice Stereotype Verify Watermelon White
What it is is that Barack Obama was raised by a white mother and two white grandparents who, A, told him he was black and that there was nothing wrong with being black.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Black Country Grandparent Mother People Person President Raise Told Two White
The Knowledge Rule 2080: From maggots to men, the world is a corner bully.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Bully Corner Knowledge Men Rule World
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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Always Anger Corner Dute Early Engender Level Morning Ousdidem Drink Outside Shame Thing

And I think, like, there’s a crucial difference between being, you know, Joe Schmo in the neighborhood and being the head, you know, of the government that, you know, in many ways is largely responsible for those conditions in the first place.

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And I think, like, there’s a crucial difference between being, you know, Joe Schmo in the neighborhood and being the head, you know, of the government that, you know, in many ways is largely responsible for those conditions in the first place.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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