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" I started writing regularly for 'The Atlantic' roughly around the time that Barack Obama got inaugurated. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Writing
Started
Got
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" Black people have been fighting for basic citizenship rights since the inception of the country. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Citizenship
Fighting
People
" Amiri Baraka went to Howard. Lucille Clifton went to Howard. Ossie Davis went to Howard. And I was aware of that when I was there. Charles Drew went to Howard. Thurgood Marshall went to the law school. Being aware of that and having all of that brought to bear, again, it's one of those things that I can't really separate from my career as a writer. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Bear
Career
Law
" I think it's really important to be conscious of yourself and the world around you. For me, that meant reading a lot and reporting. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Me
Yourself
Reading
" 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
Black
More
Me
" If I could have anything - you know, and this is across the board for any presidential candidate - I would have a greater acknowledgment of history in our policy and in our affairs. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
History
Know
Policy
" We are all losers in comparison to Malala Yousafzai. But we are not all geniuses. Like me. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Me
Losers
Like
" I have never read 'To Kill A Mockingbird.' "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Mockingbird
Read
Never
" Long view of history shows evil triumphing more often than we'd like to admit. That's just how it is. I don't despair too much about dying, either. It's just a fact of being human. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
View
Admit
Dying
" The FHA literally drew up the redlining map and then basically distributed - I'm sorry, the Home Owners' Loan Corporation actually did it, and then distributed to banks who used that as policy to determine how they would lend and who they would lend to. The racism in the system was pervasive and total. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Racism
Home
System
" 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
Theft
Same
Return
" 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 low expectations for white people or what. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Know
Expectations
Black
" If, to the end of its existence, America harbors white supremacy, I don't know how remarkable that would be. France has dealt with anti-Semitism since its inception. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
White
America
Existence
" People sort of went crazy when 'BTWAM' came out. I'm happy a bunch of people read it. I'm happy it touched so many people. I'm less happy that it became an object for certain folks or was discussed that way. I'm less happy that journalists started scrolling through my kid's Instagram account. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Started
Way
Crazy
" You may not be able to change the course of government, but you can achieve some peace. And books were the path to that. I grew up in a house where books were everywhere. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Government
Peace
Path
" It is, I think, the very chaos of America that allowed me to prosper. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Me
Chaos
America
" 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
Together
Dreams
History
" The symbolic power of Barack Obama's presidency - that whiteness was no longer strong enough to prevent peons taking up residence in the castle - assaulted the most deeply rooted notions of white supremacy and instilled fear in its adherents and beneficiaries. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Power
Up
Fear
" 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
Time
Sitting
Men
" I'm not going to break up my family, not for a book. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Going
Book
Break
" I get really, really concerned when I see somebody, taking $600,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs, will not release what they're actually saying. That's concerning. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Saying
Release
I See
" There's a long tradition of black folks pleading with white people. It's a tradition that emerges from political necessity, so I get it; I'm just not very interested in it. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
White
Black
Long
" Donald Trump did not appear by magic. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Magic
Appear
Did
" We look at young black kids with a scowl on their face, walking a certain way down the block with their sweatpants dangling, however, with their hoodies on. And folks think that this is a show of power or a show of force. But I know, because I've been among those kids, it ultimately is fear. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Think
Walking
Black
" I had no expectations of white people at all. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Had
People
White
" You had eight years before President Trump, a situation where the opposition party basically ran in opposition to the president on a platform of thinly based racism. That doesn't mean that the politicians themselves were outright racist, but when charges of birtherism came up, no one repudiated it. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Situation
You
Party
" For me, my writing benefits from my experience. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Writing
Benefits
Experience
" One can say Senator Sanders should have more explicit antiracist policy within his racial justice platform, not just more general stuff, and still cast a vote for Senator Sanders and still feel that Senator Sanders is the best option that we have in the race. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Vote
Race
Justice
" As an African-American, we stand on the shoulders of people who fought despite not seeing victories in their lifetime or even in their children's lifetime or even in their grandchildren's lifetime. So fatalism isn't really an option. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
People
Grandchildren
Stand
" I love America the way I love my family - I was born into it. And there's no escape out of it. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Escape
Born
Love
" If you are attempting to study American history, and you don't understand the force of white supremacy, you fundamentally misunderstand America. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
American
White
You