Just because you came here in 1880, 1950, whenever, you became an American. You get to celebrate July 4th like every other American.
TA-NEHISI COATESAddressing the moral failings of black people while ignoring the centuries-old failings of their governments amounts to a bait and switch.
More Ta-Nehisi Coates Quotes
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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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I would flip this the other way and say over 90 percent of African-Americans voted against Donald Trump.
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I think the president [Barack Obama] adopted some of that same language, but took it into the White House.
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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.
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You don’t just get the good part. You get the bad part, too. You get all of it.
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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.
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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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Often ironic and self-deprecating – are always spoken that take on other meanings when uttered by others.
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In particular in how [Barack Obama] has directed what you could describe as patronizing remarks to African-American communities.
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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.
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The progressive approach to policy which directly addresses the effects of white supremacy is simple.
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The standard progressive approach of the moment is to mix color-conscious moral invective with color-blind public policy.
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I think, as a writer, I’m in my own head.
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To prevent enabling oppression, we demand that black people be twice as good.
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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.
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