Talk about class and hope no one notices.
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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The essence of American racism is disrespect.
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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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You can live in the world of myth and be taken seriously.
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Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others.
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[E]mpathy – not squishy self-serving conflict avoidance – is the hand-maiden, not the enemy, of reason and intellectual inquiry.
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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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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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I think, as a writer, I’m in my own head.
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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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The unearned skepticism of one group of humans joined to the unearned sympathy for another.
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I think President [Barack] Obama deeply underestimated the force of white supremacy in American life.
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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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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.
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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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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.
TA-NEHISI COATES