When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
An America that looks away is ignoring not just the sins of the past but the sins of the present and the… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
The standard progressive approach of the moment is to mix color-conscious moral invective with color-blind public policy. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
I started writing regularly for 'The Atlantic' roughly around the time that Barack Obama got inaugurated. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
People know things and have a remarkable capacity to act in their individual immediate interests all the time. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
Any time you have, you know, upwards of 90 percent of a demographic voting against somebody, that's a statement. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
We want to believe racism is an artifact of the past, and if you have a political massacre, that contradicts that. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
I had to learn to not be so hard. And I had a wife and, at that time, a partner when Samori… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
I would say as a journalist, I would envision travelling to other countries that have had to reckon with their past and… — 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
“Indeed, in America there is a strange and powerful belief that if you stab a black person ten times, the bleeding stops… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“But while the people advocating reparations have changed over time, the response from the country has remained virtually the same. “They have… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“It struck me that perhaps the defining feature of being drafted into the black race was the inescapable robbery of time, because… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
The process of getting conscious, for me, was a very, very uncomfortable, disturbing, and sometimes physically painful process. And so that's the… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
Eddie Conway is central to my first memories. My parents used to take me to, when it was open, the Baltimore city… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“I know now that all people hunger for a noble, unsullied past, that as sure as the black nationalist dreams of a… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“The last slaveholder has been dead for a very long time. The last soldier to endure Valley Forge has been dead much… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“I remembered that once, as a child, I was filled with wonder, that I had marveled at tri-folded science projects, encyclopedias, and… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“I don't ever want to lose sight of how short my time is here. And I don't ever want to forget that… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
What I am telling you is that you do not need to know to love, and it is right that you feel… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
Abraham Lincoln is singular. Abraham Lincoln, before he was killed, stood up and, you know, for the first time from any sitting… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
When I grew up in West Baltimore, anything associated - and I'm talking about my childhood - with white people 99 percent… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“An America that asks what it owes its most vulnerable citizens is improved and humane. An America that looks away is ignoring… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“The robbery of time is not measured in lifespans but in moments. It is the last bottle of wine that you have… — 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
