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The unearned skepticism of one group of humans joined to the unearned sympathy for another.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Back Belief Bone Country Deep Institution Know Optimistic People Revert
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
[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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Ability Frankly Gave Optimism People Thing Trust White
I think President [Barack] Obama deeply underestimated the force of white supremacy in American life.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Country Force Life People Peron President Supremacy Thinking Underestimate White
I think the president [Barack Obama] adopted some of that same language, but took it into the White House.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Adopt Government House Language President Same Some Thinking Took White
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
The greatest reward of this constant interrogation, confrontation with the brutality of my country, is that it has freed me from hosts and myths.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Brutality Confrontation Constant Country Fred Greatest Host Interrogation Myth Reward
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
I think, as a writer, I’m in my own head.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Head Own Thinking Writer
The unearned skepticism of one group of humans joined to the unearned sympathy for another.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Another Group Human Join One Skepticism Sympathy Unlearn
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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Actively Ask Belong Country Freedom Long Participate Rooted
[Donald Trump] went on to, you know, otherize Muslims, otherize Latinos, otherize women, that he built out from that. And it can be true that a unique, you know, individual like Barack Obama can succeed in spite of that and still be the case that that force is quite, quite strong.
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Built Country Know Muslim Out Person President Strong Succeed Unique
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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Between Black Border Boy Crack Education Era Eye Great Height Hydra Instructor Murder Pitch Pregnancy Prison Teenage
You don’t just get the good part. You get the bad part, too. You get all of it.
TA-NEHISI COATES

All Bad Get Good Part Person Too
The standard progressive approach of the moment is to mix color-conscious moral invective with color-blind public policy.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Approach Blind Color Conscious Invective Moment Moral Policy Progressive Public Standard
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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Biracial Country Know People Person Reading Say Some Sort Thinking Under White

The unearned skepticism of one group of humans joined to the unearned sympathy for another.

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The unearned skepticism of one group of humans joined to the unearned sympathy for another.

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