If George Washington crossing the Delaware matters, so must his ruthless pursuit of the runagate Oney Judge.
TA-NEHISI COATESTo prevent verifying stereotypes, we pledge to never eat a slice a watermelon in front of white people.
More Ta-Nehisi Coates Quotes
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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.
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You can live in the world of myth and be taken seriously.
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The symbolism was in – and this sounds really, really small, but it’s actually big for African-Americans – the symbolism was not in being an embarrassment, but to being a figure that folks were actually proud of.
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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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Often ironic and self-deprecating – are always spoken that take on other meanings when uttered by others.
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Is the Jewish race thriftier than the Arab race?
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Better you knuckle up and go for yours than have to bow your head and tuck your chain.
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I think President [Barack] Obama deeply underestimated the force of white supremacy in American life.
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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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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.
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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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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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When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse.
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The unearned skepticism of one group of humans joined to the unearned sympathy for another.
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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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