“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 Copy Share Image
It is said that Obama speaks 'professorially,' a fact that understates the quickness and agility of his mind. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
Donald Trump begins his political career in birtherism. That idea is connected to a very, very old notion that African-Americans are not… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
I would flip this the other way and say over 90 percent of African-Americans voted against Donald Trump. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
In particular in how [Barack Obama] has directed what you could describe as patronizing remarks to African-American communities. — 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
I think President [Barack] Obama deeply underestimated the force of white supremacy in American life. — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
[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 Copy Share Image
It is often said that Trump has no real ideology, which is not true - his ideology is white supremacy, in all… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
Barack Obama's victories in 2008 and 2012 were dismissed by some of his critics as merely symbolic for African Americans. But there… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
The symbolic power of Barack Obama's presidency - that whiteness was no longer strong enough to prevent peons taking up residence in… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
That's not an accident that Donald Trump didn't begin with, say, trade or jobs or anything, that he actually began by otherizing… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
[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 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
“Americans, too belong to a class—one responsible for and intrinsically tied to a history of torture, bombings, and coups d’état carried out… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
It was a week after Donald Trump had won. And initially he was still optimistic. He felt that things would be OK… — 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
[Winning the White House was an achievement], but as an African-American, [Barack Obama], I think the symbolism is in how he conducted… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
You had eight years before President Trump, a situation where the opposition party basically ran in opposition to the president on a… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“The fact of Barack Obama, of Michelle Obama, changed our lives. Their very existence opened a market. It is important to say… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“Obama was born into a country where laws barring his very conception—let alone his ascendancy to the presidency—had long stood in force.… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“Pointing to citizens who voted for both Obama and Trump does not disprove racism; it evinces it. To secure the White House,… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“If women, as a gender, must suffer the constant evaluations and denigrations of men, black women must suffer that, plus a broad… — 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
“The focus on one sector of Trump voters—the white working class—is puzzling, given the breadth of his white coalition. Indeed, there is… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“In a democracy, so the saying goes, the people get the government they deserve. Part of Obama’s genius is a remarkable ability… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“The irony of Barack Obama is this: He has become the most successful black politician in American history by avoiding the radioactive… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“Obama himself, underestimating Trump and thus underestimating the power of whiteness, believed the Republican nominee too objectionable to actually win. In this… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“When presidential candidate Barack Obama presented himself to the black community, he was not to be believed. It strained credulity to think… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“Every Trump voter is certainly not a white supremacist, just as every white person in the Jim Crow South was not a… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
I think there's a sort of, you know, very thin way of reading this that says, well, Barack Obama is biracial thus… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“It has been said that the first black presidency was mostly “symbolic,” a dismissal that deeply underestimates the power of symbols. Symbols… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
Throughout his eight years in office, Barack Obama endured a campaign of illegitimacy waged either by pluralities or majorities of the Republican… — 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
Obama's presence opened a new field for writers, and what began as curiosity about the man himself eventually expanded into curiosity about… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“I have often wondered how I missed the coming tragedy. It is not so much that I should have predicted that Americans… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
I think Barack Obama was born into a home not just to a white woman and white grandparents, but a white woman… — Ta-Nehisi Coates Copy Share Image
“Whatever Obama’s other triumphs, arguably his greatest has been an expansion of the black imagination to encompass this: the idea that a… — 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
“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
![“In particular in how [Barack Obama] has directed what you could describe as patronizing remarks to African-American communities.” quote by Ta-Nehisi Coates](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c9f/ta-nehisi-coates-733_african-american_in-particular-in-how-barack-obama-has-di_2295633.png)
![“I think President [Barack] Obama deeply underestimated the force of white supremacy in American life.” quote by Ta-Nehisi Coates](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/728/ta-nehisi-coates-733_american-life_i-think-president-barack-obama-deeply-un_2722029.png)
![“[Donald Trump] went on to, you know, otherize Muslims, otherize Latinos, otherize women, that he built out from that. And it can be true that a unique, you know, individual like Barack Obama can succeed in spite of that and still be the case that that force is quite, quite strong.” quote by Ta-Nehisi Coates](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fb3/ta-nehisi-coates-733_barack_donald-trump-went-on-to-you-know-otheriz_610732.png)
![“[Barack Obama] grew up in Hawaii, far, far removed from the most, you know, sort of violent, you know, tendencies of Jim Crow and segregation. He wasn't directly exposed to that. He was untraumatized.” quote by Ta-Nehisi Coates](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a7a/ta-nehisi-coates-733_barack_barack-obama-grew-up-in-hawaii-far-far-r_1527857.png)
![“[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/i/5dc/ta-nehisi-coates-733_achievement_winning-the-white-house-was-an-achieveme_47651.png)
![“[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/i/feb/ta-nehisi-coates-733_ability_grew-up-in-hawaii-that-gave-barack-obama_75931.png)