One of the things we tell ourselves as African-Americans is if we work hard, play by the rules, we do start back… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
Barack Obama's victories in 2008 and 2012 were dismissed by some of his critics as merely symbolic for African Americans. But there… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“You are growing into consciousness, and my wish for you is that you feel no need to constrict yourself to make other… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
When you have a policy of making sure that African Americans cannot build wealth, of plundering African American communities of wealth, giving… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
You can't make a direct comparison between middle-class African Americans and middle-class white Americans, affluent African Americans and affluent white Americans. The… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
There are plenty of African-Americans in this country - and I would say this goes right up to the White House -… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“For African Americans, unfreedom is the historical norm. Enslavement lasted for nearly 250 years. The 150 years that followed have encompassed debt… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“Perhaps after a serious discussion and debate - the kind that HR 40 proposes - we may find that the country can… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
This feeling African-Americans have, this skepticism towards the police and the skepticism that the police show towards African-Americans is actually quite old.… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
Many, many people of the Revolutionary generation, the generation that fought in the Revolutionary War, understood that slavery was somehow in contradiction… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“For African Americans, war commenced not in 1861, but in 1661, when the Virginia Colony began passing America's first black codes, the… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“And I know that there are black boys and black girls out there lost in a Bermuda triangle of the mind or… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
Part of that is ordinary African-Americans, you come out of your house and you see the conditions in your neighborhood and you… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“The precise ancestry of a black drug dealer or cop killer is irrelevant. His blackness predicts and explains his crime. He reinforces… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“The irony of Barack Obama is this: He has become the most successful black politician in American history by avoiding the radioactive… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“We invoke the words of Jefferson and Lincoln because they say something about our legacy and our traditions. We do this because… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“There is a notion out there that black people enjoy the Sisyphean struggle against racism. In fact, most of us live for… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“The Jim Crow South,” writes Ira Katznelson, a history and political science professor at Columbia, “was the one collaborator America’s democracy could… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“You may have heard the talk of diversity, sensitivity training, and body cameras. These are all fine and applicable, but they understate… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“When it comes to the Civil War, all of our popular understanding, our popular history and culture, our great films, the subtext… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“To Trump whiteness is neither notional nor symbolic but is the very core of his power. In this, Trump is not singular. But whereas… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
“The focus on one sector of Trump voters—the white working class—is puzzling, given the breadth of his white coalition. Indeed, there is a kind… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
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 Copy Share
What I am telling you is that you do not need to know to love, and it is right that you feel it all… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
I think 'Dear White People,' the show, is a tremendous artistic achievement. It's always hinting that there is something beyond the pleading and wokeness,… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
[Winning the White House was an achievement], but as an African-American, [Barack Obama], I think the symbolism is in how he conducted himself. The… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
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… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
Like a lot of people, I'm very, very concerned about Senator Clinton's record. I'm very, very concerned about where her positions were in the… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
“I drove away, as always, thinking of you. I do not believe that we can stop them, Samori, because they must ultimately stop themselves.… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
What I’m talking about is more than recompense for past injustices—more than a handout, a payoff, hush money, or a reluctant bribe. What I’m… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
The mainstream sort of presentation of the civil rights movement was not something that I directly inherited. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
[Grew up in Hawaii] that gave [Barack Obama] a kind of optimism, an ability to see things, you know, and frankly, an ability to… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
“I sensed the schools were hiding something, drugging us with false morality so that we would not see, so that we did not ask:… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
You don't make a case for reparations thinking, 'Oh yeah, people are gonna love this.' I didn't see that coming. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
“And I know that there are black boys and black girls out there lost in a Bermuda triangle of the mind or stranded in… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share
