[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.
TA-NEHISI COATESAll you need to understand is that the officer carries with him the power of the American state and the weight of an American legacy.
More Ta-Nehisi Coates Quotes
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What it is is that Barack Obama was raised by a white mother and two white grandparents who, A, told him he was black and that there was nothing wrong with being black.
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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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Talk about class and hope no one notices.
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You can live in the world of myth and be taken seriously.
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The progressive approach to policy which directly addresses the effects of white supremacy is simple.
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Segregations, by which I mean people living in a certain area, was a planned system.
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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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Never forget that we were enslaved in this country longer than we have been free.
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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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Just because you came here in 1880, 1950, whenever, you became an American. You get to celebrate July 4th like every other American.
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Racism is, among other things.
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What I’m talking about is a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal.
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I think President [Barack] Obama deeply underestimated the force of white supremacy in American life.
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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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[Barack Obama] grew up in Hawaii, far, far removed from the most, you know, sort of violent, you know, tendencies of Jim Crow and segregation. He wasn’t directly exposed to that. He was untraumatized.
TA-NEHISI COATES