Often ironic and self-deprecating – are always spoken that take on other meanings when uttered by others.
TA-NEHISI COATESI’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.
More Ta-Nehisi Coates Quotes
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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.
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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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Is the Jewish race thriftier than the Arab race?
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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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And they necessitate that of the bodies destroyed every year, some wild and disproportionate number of them will be black.
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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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Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.
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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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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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And I think, like, there’s a crucial difference between being, you know, Joe Schmo in the neighborhood and being the head, you know, of the government that, you know, in many ways is largely responsible for those conditions in the first place.
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Addressing the moral failings of black people while ignoring the centuries-old failings of their governments amounts to a bait and switch.
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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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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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I am not asking you as a white person to see yourself as an enslaver.
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If George Washington crossing the Delaware matters, so must his ruthless pursuit of the runagate Oney Judge.
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