Ta-Nehisi Coates

“You deserved so much more, little flower. You deserved a Wakanda that cherished you.”

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

Black people have been fighting for basic citizenship rights since the inception of the country.

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

If George Washington crossing the Delaware matters, so must his ruthless pursuit of the runagate Oney Judge.

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

“Between 1882 and 1968, more black people were lynched in MIssissippi than in any other state.”

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

You can't tolerate anybody attempting to threaten or intimidate your body. You must respond with force.

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

“I would have you be a conscious citizen of this terrible and beautiful world. —”

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

We want to believe racism is an artifact of the past, and if you have a political massacre, that contradicts that.

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

[Barack Obama] grew up in Hawaii, far, far removed from the most, you know, sort of violent, you know, tendencies of Jim…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

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

“I devoured the books because they were the rays of light peeking out from the doorframe, and perhaps past that door there…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

Fighting, I guess, was never the real reason I read comic books as a kid. The fighting was an important part, an…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

“We’d summoned you out of ourselves, and you were not given a vote. If only for that reason, you deserved all the…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

What sets black people apart is not some deficit in personal responsibility. It's the weight on our shoulders. That is what's actually…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

If I could have anything - you know, and this is across the board for any presidential candidate - I would have…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

It meant something to see people who looked like me in comic books. It was this beautiful place that I felt pop…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

[Donald Trump] went on to, you know, otherize Muslims, otherize Latinos, otherize women, that he built out from that. And it can…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

“Ideas like cosmic justice, collective hope, and national redemption had no meaning for me. The truth was in the everything that came…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

Germany has spent the decades since World War II in national penance for Nazi crimes. America spent the decades after the Civil…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

We look at young black kids with a scowl on their face, walking a certain way down the block with their sweatpants…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

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

“There was more out there than I had ever hoped for, and I wanted you to have it. I wanted you to…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

“To Trump whiteness is neither notional nor symbolic but is the very core of his power. In this, Trump is not singular.…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

“That war was inaugurated not reluctantly, but lustily, by men who believed property in humans to be the cornerstone of civilization, to…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

“Never forget that for 250 years black people were born into chains—whole generations followed by more generations who knew nothing but chains.…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

“The “rising tide” theory rested on a notion of separate but equal class ladders. And so there was a class of black…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

“The need to forgive the officer would not have moved me, because even then, in some inchoate form, I knew that Prince…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

I constantly write about my safety walking to and from school, and then I would come home at night, and I would…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

“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

I don't want them to read what I'm writing and say, 'I think that's right,' and agree with me. I want them…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

“It is insufficient to state the obvious of Donald Trump: that he is a white man who would not be president were…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

If you are attempting to study American history, and you don't understand the force of white supremacy, you fundamentally misunderstand America.

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

“I sensed the schools were hiding something, drugging us with false morality so that we would not see, so that we did…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

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

“I did not love it, but I loved it. The fear I felt then was not just the anguish in my gut…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

“The promise of a cost-free escape from history should have made me suspicious. But what ultimately made me question the “rising tide”…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

“I don’t ever want to forget that resistance must be its own reward, since resistance, at least within the life span of…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

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

“The most precious thing I had then is the most precious thing I have now—my own curiosity. That is the thing I…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates

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

Well into the 20th century, black people spoke of their flight from Mississippi in much the same manner as their runagate ancestors…

— Ta-Nehisi Coates