The greatest reward of this constant interrogation, confrontation with the brutality of my country, is that it has freed me from hosts… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
If Obama's enormous symbolic power draws primarily from being the country's first black president, it also draws from his membership in hip-hop's… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
Lot of folks like to mock dumb history, and pretend it's just a few idiots. Isn't. It's the country. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
If your response to the first black president is to say they weren't born in this country... you might be a white… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
White supremacy is a very, very popular and trenchant belief in this country's history and heritage. — 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
The country in which reparations actually happen is a very different one than the one we live in. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
We had particular policies in this country that resulted in the larger share of poverty that we have in African-American communities. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
I am not asking you as a white person to see yourself as an enslaver. I'm asking you as an American to… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
I'm not familiar particularly with Hillary Clinton's neighborhood, but I wish people were a little bit more curious about what we call… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
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… — 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
With segregation, with the isolation of the injured and the robbed, comes the concentration of disadvantage. An unsegregated America might see poverty,… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
The soul is part of the body. The mind is part of the body. When folks do physical violence to black people,… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
Never forget that we were enslaved in this country longer than we have been free. Never forget that for 250 years black… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
Barack Obama is the president of the United States of America. More specifically, Barack Obama is the president of a congenitally racist… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
Black people have been fighting for basic citizenship rights since the inception of the country. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
The relationship between violence and nonviolence in this country is interesting. The fact of the matter is, you know, people do respond… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
I'm the descendant of enslaved black people in this country. You could've been born in 1820 if you were black and looked… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
We have this long history of racism in this country, and as it happens, the criminal justice system has been perhaps the… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
There are African-American families around this country - a large, large number of African-American families - that operate out of complete fear… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
I don't know that white people need to be 'allies' so much as understand that any black struggle in America is ultimately… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
I think the sad fact is, there's a long history in this country at looking at African-American as subhuman. And I think… — 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
