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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.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

An unsegregated America might see poverty, and all its effects, spread across the country with no particular bias toward skin color. Instead, the concentration of poverty has been paired with a concentration of melanin.
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Color Concentrate Country Effect Instead Melanin Paired Poverty Spreadma Cross
[Winning the White House was an achievement], but as an African-American, [Barack Obama], I think the symbolism is in how he conducted himself.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Achievement Country House Symbolism Think Thinking White Winning
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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Become Celebrate Celebration Country Day July
What sets black people apart is not some deficit in personal responsibility. It’s the weight on our shoulders. That is what’s actually different. We have the weight and burden of history.
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Apart Black Deficit People Personal Responsibility Some
[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

Celebrity Country Crow Hawaii Know Man Most Personality President Remove Segregation Tendency Violent
The Knowledge Rule 2080: From maggots to men, the world is a corner bully.
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Bully Corner Knowledge Men Rule World
I did not know then that this is what life is – just when you master the geometry of one world, it slips away, and suddenly again, you’re swarmed by strange shapes and impossible angles.
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Geometry Impossible Life Master One Shape Strange Suddenly World
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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Condition Drinking Folk Home House Morning Neighbourhood Ordinary Country Part See
Barack Obama is the president of the United States of America.
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Country Land People Person President State United
[Donald Trump] went on to, you know, otherize Muslims, otherize Latinos, otherize women, that he built out from that. And it can be true that a unique, you know, individual like Barack Obama can succeed in spite of that and still be the case that that force is quite, quite strong.
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Built Country Know Muslim Out Person President Strong Succeed Unique
[E]mpathy – not squishy self-serving conflict avoidance – is the hand-maiden, not the enemy, of reason and intellectual inquiry.
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Avoidance Conflict Empathy Hand Intellectual Maiden Self Serve
You can live in the world of myth and be taken seriously.
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Live Myth Seriously Taken World
This feeling African-Americans have, this skepticism towards the police and the skepticism that the police show towards African-Americans is actually quite old. And it may be one of the most durable aspects of the relationship between black people and their country really in our history.
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Country Feel Many People Person Police Skepticism Towards
I think President [Barack] Obama deeply underestimated the force of white supremacy in American life.
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Country Force Life People Peron President Supremacy Thinking Underestimate White
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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Basically Corner Dude Hang Me Mom Phrase Phrases Radio Use
I think, as a writer, I’m in my own head.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Head Own Thinking Writer

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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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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Popular Authors

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