Ta-Nehisi Coates Quotes

Ta-Nehisi Coates
Ta-Nehisi Coates
American Journalist
Born: Sep 30, 1975
Black Country People Think White You
Related authors: Ambrose Bierce Dave Barry Erma Bombeck Hunter S. Thompson Mignon McLaughlin Walter Cronkite William F. Buckley, Jr. William Lloyd Garrison
When I see the Confederate flag, I see the attempt to raise an empire in slavery. It really, really is that simple. I don't understand how anybody with any sort of education on the Civil War can see anything else. Ta-Nehisi Coates
Education War Simple Confederate Else Civil See Civil War Attempt Empire Sort Understand How Flag Any Anybody Anything Anything Else Really Raise Slavery
When you write, you're inside the project. You can't really think about the reception. It has to be worth it even if no one reads it. Ta-Nehisi Coates
You Worth Think Project Worth It Inside About Write No-One Reads Really Even Reception
It's kind of selfish to say that you're only going to fight for a victory that you will live to see. Ta-Nehisi Coates
You Selfish Fight Victory Will Live Say Kind See Only Going
I've been very, very careful to tell people what I am qualified to talk about and what I'm not qualified to talk about. Ta-Nehisi Coates
People Tell About Qualified Talk Am Been Very Careful
Abraham Lincoln is singular. Abraham Lincoln, before he was killed, stood up and, you know, for the first time from any sitting president, stood for the right for suffrage for African-American men who had served in the Civil War. And that's a limited suffrage, but it was quite radical at the time. Ta-Nehisi Coates
War Time You Men First Before Radical President Civil Civil War Abraham Abraham Lincoln Had He Know First Time Limited Lincoln Singular Up Sitting Any Quite Stood African-American Who Served Right Suffrage
I constantly write about my safety walking to and from school, and then I would come home at night, and I would cut on the TV, and I would watch a show like 'The Wonder Years,' or I would watch, you know, some other show like 'Family Ties.' Ta-Nehisi Coates
Home Family You School Safety Other TV Would Constantly Some About Write Come Like Know Ties Years Wonder Walking Family Ties Cut Then Show Watch Night
I feel some need to represent where I'm from. But ultimately, I think my only real responsibility is to - as much as possible - interrogate my own truths. This is to say not merely writing what I think is true, but using the writing to turn that alleged truth over and over, to stress-test it, in the aim of producing something readable. Ta-Nehisi Coates
Truth Writing Responsibility Own Think Aim Say Possible Some Alleged Something My Own Only True Merely Feel Over Real Ultimately Truths Represent Where Turn Much Producing Using Need
I think a lot about the private emotions of black people - what we feel and yet is rarely publicly expressed. Ta-Nehisi Coates
People Emotions Black Think Rarely About Feel Private Lot Expressed Publicly
When I see Bruce Banner becoming the Hulk, it's only a picture. My imagination has to do some of the work there, to impute feeling and everything. We're talking about something that's so surreal, it's just not possible within the world as we know it. So that requires a form that is not so literal. Ta-Nehisi Coates
Work World Feeling Picture Imagination Everything Possible See Some About Bruce Something Only Know Talking Within Becoming Surreal Hulk Just Literal Form Banner Requires
I feel sorry for people who only know comic books through movies. I really do. Ta-Nehisi Coates
People Sorry Books Only Through Feel Know Comic Comic Books Movies Really Who
'White America' is a syndicate arrayed to protect its exclusive power to dominate and control our bodies. Ta-Nehisi Coates
Power Control White Our Syndicate Exclusive Protect Dominate America Bodies
My father was so very afraid. I felt it in the sting of his black leather belt, which he applied with more anxiety than anger, my father who beat me as if someone might steal me away, because that was exactly what was happening all around us. Ta-Nehisi Coates
Me Anger Anxiety Father Black Exactly Exactly What All-Around Someone More Steal Beat He Because Around Felt Leather His Sting Very Than Afraid Happening Which Might Us Who Away Applied Belt
Racism is a physical experience. Ta-Nehisi Coates
Experience Racism Physical
The soul is part of the body. The mind is part of the body. When folks do physical violence to black people, to black bodies in this country, the soul as we construe it is damaged, too - the mind is damaged, too. Ta-Nehisi Coates
Soul People Mind Black Country Too Folks Physical Part Bodies Body Violence Damaged
I was about 13 or 14 when I heard Malcolm X's speech 'Message to the Grass Roots.' Ta-Nehisi Coates
Grass About Message Malcolm Heard Roots Grass Roots Speech
Everybody thinks that an important book has to be a big, long book. Ta-Nehisi Coates
Book Long Important Big Everybody Thinks
Rates of black poverty have decreased. Black teen-pregnancy rates are at record lows - and the gap between black and white teen-pregnancy rates has shrunk significantly. But such progress rests on a shaky foundation, and fault lines are everywhere. Ta-Nehisi Coates
Progress Fault Black Black And White Poverty White Everywhere Record Rates Shaky Rests Between Lines Lows Gap Foundation Shrunk
As a writer, I was shaped by a desire to write for black people. That things were not being represented. That was my motivating force. That it has become what it has become is shocking to me. I just wanted to be able to take care of my kids. Ta-Nehisi Coates
Me People Care Black Become Kids Able Write Writer Take Shaped Take Care Force Motivating Were Shocking Just Being Wanted Things Desire
Fighting, I guess, was never the real reason I read comic books as a kid. The fighting was an important part, an integral part of it; I don't know I would've read it without it. Ta-Nehisi Coates
Important Fighting Guess Books Kid Never Part Know Read Important Part Without Comic Comic Books Real Integral Integral Part Real Reason Reason
I was 24 when Samori was born. His mom was 23. Ta-Nehisi Coates
Mom Born His
Donald Trump begins his political career in birtherism. That idea is connected to a very, very old notion that African-Americans are not citizens. Ta-Nehisi Coates
Political Old Citizens Idea Political Career His Trump Very Begins Donald Donald Trump Notion Connected Career
When I grew up in West Baltimore, anything associated - and I'm talking about my childhood - with white people 99 percent of the time was something malevolent, like it was an explanatory force for something bad. Ta-Nehisi Coates
Time People White Bad About Percent Something Like Force Talking West Malevolent Baltimore Up Childhood Grew Anything Associated
I think Barack Obama was born into a home not just to a white woman and white grandparents, but a white woman and white grandparents who shockingly told him it was okay that he was black and that he should not be ashamed of it and that he should, in fact, be proud of it. Ta-Nehisi Coates
Home Woman Black White Think Okay Obama Born Fact He Him Proud Just In Fact Barack Ashamed Barack Obama Should Grandparents Who
American myths have never been colorless. Ta-Nehisi Coates
Never Myths Been American
Every writer dreams of having the ability to hold forth for 8,000 words and pull all these different forms together: history, reportage, journalism. That was all I really wanted, and 'The Atlantic' was my first high-profile opportunity. Ta-Nehisi Coates
Dreams History Together Words Opportunity First Every Ability Atlantic Having High-Profile Writer Journalism Different Wanted Hold Forms Forth Really Pull
To Trump, whiteness is neither notional nor symbolic but the very core of his power. In this, Trump is not singular. But whereas his forebears carried whiteness like an ancestral talisman, Trump cracked the glowing amulet open, releasing its eldritch energies. Ta-Nehisi Coates
Power Ancestral Releasing Carried Neither Open Like Glowing His Nor Singular Trump Very Cracked Whereas Energies Whiteness Symbolic Core
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