I'm not going to break up my family, not for a book. Ta-Nehisi Coates More Quotes by Ta-Nehisi Coates More Quotes From Ta-Nehisi Coates If George Washington crossing the Delaware matters, so must his ruthless pursuit of the runagate Oney Judge. Ta-Nehisi Coates delawarejudgingmatter Segregations, by which I mean people living in a certain area, was a planned system. It was made that way. And what you have is a system in which people are there to be exploited. They're right there waiting for it. A community of people who've been denied wealth, denied wealth-building opportunities, are right there. And the banks went right after them. Ta-Nehisi Coates opportunitymeanpeople The essence of American racism is disrespect. Ta-Nehisi Coates disrespectessenceracism I was a black boy at the height of the crack era, which meant that my instructors pitched education as the border between those who would prosper in America, and those who would be fed to the great hydra of prison, teenage pregnancy and murder. Ta-Nehisi Coates teenagepregnancyboys Barack Obama is the president of the United States of America. More specifically, Barack Obama is the president of a congenitally racist country, erected upon the plunder of life, liberty, labor, and land. This plunder has not been exclusive to black people. - Ta Ta-Nehisi Coates landcountryamerica The Knowledge Rule 2080: From maggots to men, the world is a corner bully. Better you knuckle up and go for yours than have to bow your head and tuck your chain. Ta-Nehisi Coates bullymenworld 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 blackgovernmentpeople The progressive approach to policy which directly addresses the effects of white supremacy is simple - talk about class and hope no one notices. Ta-Nehisi Coates simplewhiteclass Is the Jewish race thriftier than the Arab race? Ta-Nehisi Coates race With segregation, with the isolation of the injured and the robbed, comes the concentration of disadvantage. An unsegregated America might see poverty, and all its effects, spread across the country with no particular bias toward skin color. Instead, the concentration of poverty has been paired with a concentration of melanin. Ta-Nehisi Coates colorcountryamerica 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 rewardsbrutalitycountry All you need to understand is that the officer carries with him the power of the American state and the weight of an American legacy, and they necessitate that of the bodies destroyed every year, some wild and disproportionate number of them will be black. Ta-Nehisi Coates blacknumbersyears When you have a policy of making sure that African Americans cannot build wealth, of plundering African American communities of wealth, giving opportunities to other people, it's only right that you might want to, you know, pay that back. Ta-Nehisi Coates opportunitygivingpeople Lot of folks like to mock dumb history, and pretend it's just a few idiots. Isn't. It's the country. Ta-Nehisi Coates idiotdumbcountry I think the president [Barack Obama] adopted some of that same language, but took it into the White House. And I think, like, there's a crucial difference between being, you know, Joe Schmo in the neighborhood and being the head, you know, of the government that, you know, in many ways is largely responsible for those conditions in the first place. Ta-Nehisi Coates governmentwhitethinking [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. Ta-Nehisi Coates hawaiisegregationcrow I want to be really, really clear about this. It doesn't mean that everyone or even the majority of people who voted for Donald Trump are racist or white supremacists or anything like that. But what it means is that it's not a mistake that Trump began his campaign with birthersism . Ta-Nehisi Coates whitemistakemean What it is is that Barack Obama was raised by a white mother and two white grandparents who, A, told him he was black and that there was nothing wrong with being black. Ta-Nehisi Coates motherwhitetwo Part of that is ordinary African-Americans, you come out of your house and you see the conditions in your neighborhood and you see, folks in your neighborhood doing certain things that, are irresponsible. You know, the thing I always think about, you get up early in the morning to go to work and there's some dude outside drinking and you come home and the same dude is outside drinking hanging on the corner. And then this engenders a level of anger I think and a level of shame. Ta-Nehisi Coates drinkinghomemorning It was a week after Donald Trump had won. And initially he was still optimistic. He felt that things would be OK ultimately. And I have to tell you, this is the area where, you know, I see, you know, some degree of contradiction. I mean, the president, you know, at one point when he was campaigning said I believe that Donald Trump was not qualified to run a 7-Eleven. Ta-Nehisi Coates optimisticrunningbelieve
