“Slavery, Jim Crow, segregation: These bonded white people into a broad aristocracy united by the salient fact of unblackness.” — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
When people who are not black are interested in what I do, frankly, I'm always surprised. I don't know if it's my… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
There's a long tradition of black folks pleading with white people. It's a tradition that emerges from political necessity, so I get… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“I had never seen a black man like Barack Obama. He talked to white people in a new language—as though he actually… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
The essential relationship across American history between black people and white people is one of exploitation and one of plunder. This is… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
To prevent enabling oppression, we demand that black people be twice as good. To prevent verifying stereotypes, we pledge to never eat… — 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
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 'Dear White People,' the show, is a tremendous artistic achievement. It's always hinting that there is something beyond the pleading… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“Whatever appeals to the white working class is ennobled. What appeals to black workers, and all others outside the tribe, is dastardly… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“The belief that the Civil War wasn’t for us was the result of the country’s long search for a narrative that could… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“The weakness in the case for integration was that it ultimately rested on a critical mass of white people playing along, either… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“But what I remember most is the sense of impossibility with which Obama regarded the Trump presidency. I confess to basically feeling… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“For that particular community, for my community, the message has long been clear: The Civil War is a story for white people—acted… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“There were distinct advantages to black atheism, to a disbelief in dreams and moral appeal. First, it removed the weight of believing… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“This part of the Obama formula is the most troubling, and least thought out. This judgment emerges from my own biography. I… — 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
