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.
TA-NEHISI COATESSegregations, by which I mean people living in a certain area, was a planned system.
More Ta-Nehisi Coates Quotes
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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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The symbolism was in – and this sounds really, really small, but it’s actually big for African-Americans – the symbolism was not in being an embarrassment, but to being a figure that folks were actually proud of.
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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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I think the president [Barack Obama] adopted some of that same language, but took it into the White House.
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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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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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The essence of American racism is disrespect.
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The Knowledge Rule 2080: From maggots to men, the world is a corner bully.
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Barack Obama is the president of the United States of America.
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I think the sad fact is, there’s a long history in this country at looking at African-American as subhuman.
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To prevent enabling oppression, we demand that black people be twice as good.
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Is the Jewish race thriftier than the Arab race?
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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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Never forget that for 250 years black people were born into chains-whole generations followed by more generations who knew nothing but chains.
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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