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I think the president [Barack Obama] adopted some of that same language, but took it into the White House.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Condition Drinking Folk Home House Morning Neighbourhood Ordinary Country Part See
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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Always Anger Corner Dute Early Engender Level Morning Ousdidem Drink Outside Shame Thing
I mean, the president, you know, at one point when he was campaigning said I believe that Donald Trump was not qualified to run a 7-Eleven.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Believe Campaigning Country Eleven Personality President Run Seven
[Winning the White House was an achievement], but as an African-American, [Barack Obama], I think the symbolism is in how he conducted himself.
TA-NEHISI COATES

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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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Feel Heartbroken Know Moment Need Right Tell
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
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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Accident Actually Anything Begin Country First Job People Peron President Trade
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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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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Giving opportunities to other people, it’s only right that you might want to, you know, pay that back.
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Back Giving Know might Opportunity Other Pay People Right Want
I am not asking you as a white person to see yourself as an enslaver.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Ask Country Enslaver Past Person White Yourself
In particular in how [Barack Obama] has directed what you could describe as patronizing remarks to African-American communities.
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Community Country Describe Direct Particular People Person
To prevent verifying stereotypes, we pledge to never eat a slice a watermelon in front of white people.
TA-NEHISI COATES

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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
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 COATES

Apart Black Deficit People Personal Responsibility Some
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

Democratizer Fact Great History Image Reconciling Self Yelling

I think the president [Barack Obama] adopted some of that same language, but took it into the White House.

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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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