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Often ironic and self-deprecating – are always spoken that take on other meanings when uttered by others.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

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Always Deprecating Meaning Often Other Self Spoken Take

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Marilyn Monroe Paulo Coelho Abraham Lincoln C. S. Lewis Khalil Gibran Charlie Chaplin Gautama Buddha Isaac Newton

Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal.
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Country Equal Humdres Separate Slavery Two Year
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
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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Back Belief Bone Country Deep Institution Know Optimistic People Revert
[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.
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Ability Frankly Gave Optimism People Thing Trust White
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
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.
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Condition Drinking Folk Home House Morning Neighbourhood Ordinary Country Part See
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
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
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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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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Always Between Condition Difference First Government Head Many Neighbourhood Place Responsible Schmo Way
I think there’s a sort of, you know, very thin way of reading this that says, well, Barack Obama is biracial thus that gives him some understanding of both white America and black America, but that’s not really it.
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Biracial Country Know People Person Reading Say Some Sort Thinking Under White
Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others.
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Broad Hatred Merely More Often Racism Simplist Sympathy Toward
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.
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Certain Future Ignore Just Look Past Present Sin
It was made that way. And what you have is a system in which people are there to be exploited.
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Exploiter Made People Some
I think, as a writer, I’m in my own head.
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Head Own Thinking Writer
Is the Jewish race thriftier than the Arab race?
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Country Jewish People Peron Race Thriftier
The progressive approach to policy which directly addresses the effects of white supremacy is simple.
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Addresses Class Directly Effect Policy Progressive Approach Simple Supremacy White
Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.
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Compound Country Debt Fivem Eyar Moral Policy Racist Reckon Thirty Whole
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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Apart Black Deficit People Personal Responsibility Some
I did not know then that this is what life is – just when you master the geometry of one world, it slips away, and suddenly again, you’re swarmed by strange shapes and impossible angles.
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Geometry Impossible Life Master One Shape Strange Suddenly World
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
The standard progressive approach of the moment is to mix color-conscious moral invective with color-blind public policy.
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Approach Blind Color Conscious Invective Moment Moral Policy Progressive Public Standard
Addressing the moral failings of black people while ignoring the centuries-old failings of their governments amounts to a bait and switch.
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Addressing Amount Bait Black Century Fail Failing Government Ignore Moral People Switch
[Winning the White House was an achievement], but as an African-American, [Barack Obama], I think the symbolism is in how he conducted himself.
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Achievement Country House Symbolism Think Thinking White Winning
What I’m talking about is more than recompense for past injustices-more than a handout, a payoff, hush money, or a reluctant bribe.
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Bribe Dog Handout Injustice Mean Money Payoff Recompense Spiritual Talk
That’s not an accident that Donald Trump didn’t begin with, say, trade or jobs or anything, that he actually began by otherizing the first African-American president of the United States.
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Accident Actually Anything Begin Country First Job People Peron President Trade
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.
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Black Country Grandparent Mother People Person President Raise Told Two White

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