I don't completely understand why people in Aspen want to hear what I have to say. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
I feel sorry for people who only know comic books through movies. I really do. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
The best part of writing is not the communication of knowledge to other people, but the acquisition and synthesizing of knowledge for… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
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 Image
Black people are pledging their fealty to the state, and yet they aren't getting the same return. This is theft. It's systemized. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
I think a lot about the private emotions of black people - what we feel and yet is rarely publicly expressed. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
When people think about reparations, they immediately think about people who've been dead for 100 years. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
Addressing the moral failings of black people while ignoring the centuries-old failings of their governments amounts to a bait and switch. — 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
You don't actually have control of the position people want you to be in. If they say, 'You king of the blacks,'… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
People sort of went crazy when 'BTWAM' came out. I'm happy a bunch of people read it. I'm happy it touched so… — 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
The casualties in the Civil War amount to more than all other wars - all other American wars combined. More people died… — 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
I want to be really, really clear about this. It doesn't mean that everyone or even the majority of people who voted… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
I don't know how you bridge that contradiction, but I felt that Barack Obama was sincere. It didn't feel like a line… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
With George Bush's policies, I could make an argument for how they affect black people in a negative way. You know what… — 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
Redlining went beyond FHA-backed loans and spread to the entire mortgage industry, which was already rife with racism, excluding black people from… — 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
There is some group of Americans who are really, really curious to understand how we ended up at this point, where every… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
As a writer, I was shaped by a desire to write for black people. That things were not being represented. That was… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
I think the body is the ultimate thing. The soul and mind are part of the body. I don't think there is… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
[Grew up in Hawaii] that gave [Barack Obama] a kind of optimism, an ability to see things, you know, and frankly, an… — 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
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
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've been very, very careful to tell people what I am qualified to talk about and what I'm not qualified to talk… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
I am always surprised people are surprised that people haven't read things. — 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
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
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
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
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
When people hear the term 'political prisoner,' especially on the Left, it becomes a kind of abstraction. Folks are aware of injustice,… — 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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
[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 Image
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 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 in the… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“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 Image
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 Image
The mainstream sort of presentation of the civil rights movement was not something that I directly inherited. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
[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 Image
![“[Grew up in Hawaii] that gave [Barack Obama] a kind of optimism, an ability to see things, you know, and frankly, an ability to trust, you know, in his fellow, you know, white countrymen in a way that I, for instance, you know, and the vast majority of black people I know never really could.” quote by Ta-Nehisi Coates](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/feb/ta-nehisi-coates-733_ability_grew-up-in-hawaii-that-gave-barack-obama_75931.jpg)
![“[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 symbolism was in - and this sounds really, really small, but it's actually big for African-Americans - the symbolism was not in being an…” quote by Ta-Nehisi Coates](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/5dc/ta-nehisi-coates-733_achievement_winning-the-white-house-was-an-achieveme_47651.jpg)
