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You can live in the world of myth and be taken seriously.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

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
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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Certain Future Ignore Just Look Past Present Sin
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
Lot of folks like to mock dumb history, and pretend it’s just a few idiots. Isn’t. It’s the country.
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Country Dumb Folk History Idiot Lot Mock Pretend
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
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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Become Celebrate Celebration Country Day July
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
Any time you have, you know, upwards of 90 percent of a demographic voting against somebody, that’s a statement.
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Demographics Percent Somebody Statement Upward Voting
I’m asking you as an American to see all of the freedoms that you enjoy and see how they are rooted in things that the country you belong to condoned or actively participated in the past.
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Actively Ask Belong Country Freedom Long Participate Rooted
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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Democratizer Fact Great History Image Reconciling Self Yelling
Talk about class and hope no one notices.
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Class Hope No Notice One Talk
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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After Believe Country Optimistic People Person President Running Won
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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Bridge Contradiction Country Felt Optimism People Peron Sincere
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
You don’t just get the good part. You get the bad part, too. You get all of it.
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All Bad Get Good Part Person Too
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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Brutality Confrontation Constant Country Fred Greatest Host Interrogation Myth Reward

You can live in the world of myth and be taken seriously.

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You can live in the world of myth and be taken seriously.

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