I think, as a writer, I’m in my own head.
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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[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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My mom used to tell me, I can’t use this phrase on the radio – but basically don’t be one of those dudes hanging on the corner.
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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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Segregations, by which I mean people living in a certain area, was a planned system.
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The progressive approach to policy which directly addresses the effects of white supremacy is simple.
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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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Any time you have, you know, upwards of 90 percent of a demographic voting against somebody, that’s a statement.
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[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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The standard progressive approach of the moment is to mix color-conscious moral invective with color-blind public policy.
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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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What I’m talking about is a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal.
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Humans also tend to find community to be pleasurable, and within the boundaries of community relationships, words.
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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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I want to be really, really clear about this. It doesn’t mean that everyone or even the majority of people who voted for Donald Trump are racist or white supremacists or anything like that. But what it means is that it’s not a mistake that Trump began his campaign with birthersism .
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The greatest reward of this constant interrogation, confrontation with the brutality of my country, is that it has freed me from hosts and myths.
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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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Talk about class and hope no one notices.
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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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Racism is, among other things.
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I think President [Barack] Obama deeply underestimated the force of white supremacy in American life.
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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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The Knowledge Rule 2080: From maggots to men, the world is a corner bully.
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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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You don’t just get the good part. You get the bad part, too. You get all of it.
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You can live in the world of myth and be taken seriously.
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Reparations would mean the end of yelling “patriotism” while waving a Confederate flag. Reparations would mean a revolution of the American consciousness, a reconciling of our self-image as the great democratizer with the facts of our history.
TA-NEHISI COATES