Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal.
TA-NEHISI COATESThe essence of American racism is disrespect.
More Ta-Nehisi Coates Quotes
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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.
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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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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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In particular in how [Barack Obama] has directed what you could describe as patronizing remarks to African-American communities.
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The unearned skepticism of one group of humans joined to the unearned sympathy for another.
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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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Giving opportunities to other people, it’s only right that you might want to, you know, pay that back.
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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.
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Never forget that we were enslaved in this country longer than we have been free.
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I think President [Barack] Obama deeply underestimated the force of white supremacy in American life.
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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.
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More specifically, Barack Obama is the president of a congenitally racist country, erected upon the plunder of life, liberty, labor, and land. This plunder has not been exclusive to black people.
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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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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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Reparations would mean the end of scarfing hot dogs on the Fourth of July while denying the facts of our heritage.
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