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What I’m talking about is a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

I think, as a writer, I’m in my own head.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Head Own Thinking Writer
The best part of writing is not the communication of knowledge to other people, but the acquisition and synthesizing of knowledge for oneself.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Acquisition Best Communication Knowledge Other People Writing
The unearned skepticism of one group of humans joined to the unearned sympathy for another.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Another Group Human Join One Skepticism Sympathy Unlearn
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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Geometry Impossible Life Master One Shape Strange Suddenly World
The greatest reward of this constant interrogation, confrontation with the brutality of my country, is that it has freed me from hosts and myths.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Brutality Confrontation Constant Country Fred Greatest Host Interrogation Myth Reward
Segregations, by which I mean people living in a certain area, was a planned system.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Area Ceratin Mean Opportunity People Planned Segregation System
If George Washington crossing the Delaware matters, so must his ruthless pursuit of the runagate Oney Judge.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Country Cross Delaware Judge Judging Matter Pursuit Runagate Ruthless
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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Between Black Border Boy Crack Education Era Eye Great Height Hydra Instructor Murder Pitch Pregnancy Prison Teenage
It was made that way. And what you have is a system in which people are there to be exploited.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Exploiter Made People Some
What I am telling you is that you do not need to know to love, and it is right that you feel it all in any moment. And it is right that you see it through–that you are amazed, then curious, then belligerent, then heartbroken, then numb. You have the right to all of it.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Feel Heartbroken Know Moment Need Right Tell
You don’t just get the good part. You get the bad part, too. You get all of it.
TA-NEHISI COATES

All Bad Get Good Part Person Too
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.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Country Feel Many People Person Police Skepticism Towards
[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
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

Answer Employment Fact Health Poice Problem Really Reflect
Any time you have, you know, upwards of 90 percent of a demographic voting against somebody, that’s a statement.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Demographics Percent Somebody Statement Upward Voting
Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal.
TA-NEHISI COATES

Country Equal Humdres Separate Slavery Two Year

What I’m talking about is a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal.

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What I’m talking about is a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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