Racism is, among other things, the unearned skepticism of one group of humans joined to the unearned sympathy for another.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesWhen nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesI think President [Barack] Obama deeply underestimated the force of white supremacy in American life.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesWhat I am telling you is that you do not need to know to love, and it is right that you feel it all in any moment. And it is right that you see it through--that you are amazed, then curious, then belligerent, then heartbroken, then numb. You have the right to all of it.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesWhat Iโm talking about is more than recompense for past injusticesโmore than a handout, a payoff, hush money, or a reluctant bribe. What Iโm talking about is a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal. Reparations would mean the end of scarfing hot dogs on the Fourth of July while denying the facts of our heritage. Reparations would mean the end of yelling โpatriotismโ while waving a Confederate flag. Reparations would mean a revolution of the American consciousness, a reconciling of our self-image as the great democratizer with the facts of our history.
Ta-Nehisi Coates