Never forget that we were enslaved in this country longer than we have been free.
TA-NEHISI COATESI 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.
More Ta-Nehisi Coates Quotes
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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.
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It was made that way. And what you have is a system in which people are there to be exploited.
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The unearned skepticism of one group of humans joined to the unearned sympathy for another.
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When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse.
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What I’m talking about is a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal.
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The best part of writing is not the communication of knowledge to other people, but the acquisition and synthesizing of knowledge for oneself.
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It was a week after Donald Trump had won. And initially he was still optimistic. He felt that things would be OK ultimately. And I have to tell you, this is the area where, you know, I see, you know, some degree of contradiction.
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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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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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To prevent verifying stereotypes, we pledge to never eat a slice a watermelon in front of white people.
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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.
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The essence of American racism is disrespect.
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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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Humans also tend to find community to be pleasurable, and within the boundaries of community relationships, words.
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With segregation, with the isolation of the injured and the robbed, comes the concentration of disadvantage.
TA-NEHISI COATES