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" The ties between the Obama White House and the hip-hop community are genuine. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Obama
White
Community
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" Everybody thinks that an important book has to be a big, long book. "
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Big
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" I don't completely understand why people in Aspen want to hear what I have to say. "
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Hear
Want
Why
" I wasn't the biggest Captain America fan, but increasingly, I see him as a great character. Winter Soldier really got into what it meant to actually represent America. "
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" I'm not familiar particularly with Hillary Clinton's neighborhood, but I wish people were a little bit more curious about what we call privilege and about why it's there. Black people in this country have no choice but to be curious. We have to know. I wish folks would do a little bit more investigation. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Wish
Black
Choice
" The essential relationship across American history between black people and white people is one of exploitation and one of plunder. This is not, you know, necessarily about, you know, whether you're a good person or not or whether you see black people, you know, on the street, and you're willing to shake their hands and be polite. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Good
History
People
" 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
Black And White
White
Progress
" 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
" Forgiveness is a big part of - especially post-civil rights movement - is a big part of African-American Christianity, and I wasn't raised within the Christian church; I wasn't raised within any church. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Rights
Forgiveness
Church
" There are plenty of African-Americans in this country - and I would say this goes right up to the White House - who are not by any means poor, but are very much afflicted by white supremacy. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
White
House
Say
" I was 24 when Samori was born. His mom was 23. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Mom
His
Born
" You can't make a direct comparison between middle-class African Americans and middle-class white Americans, affluent African Americans and affluent white Americans. The amount of wealth tends to be less. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
White
Comparison
Wealth
" The process of getting conscious, for me, was a very, very uncomfortable, disturbing, and sometimes physically painful process. And so that's the standard to which I write, because it was what I've experienced over my time. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Me
Over
Process
" 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
" I love living around black people. Home is home. We suffer under racism and the physical deprivations that come with that, but beneath that, we form cultures and traditions that are beautiful. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Love
Racism
People
" Abraham Lincoln was killed by the forces of white supremacy. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Forces
Abraham
White
" 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 think 'Dear White People,' the show, is a tremendous artistic achievement. It's always hinting that there is something beyond the pleading and wokeness, something that the show's more militant characters can't see. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Achievement
See
Think
" I'm a writer. My job is to speak what - that which I think is true. If that bridges the gap, that's good. If it doesn't, that's too bad. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Think
Speak
Job
" It's very hard to be black in this country and hate America. It's really hard to live like that. I would actually argue it's impossible to fully see yourself. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Live
Black
America
" 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
World
Imagination
Know
" I guess I'd be put in the ID politics camp. But there is really nothing in the world-view of, say, Bernie Sanders I actually disagree with. I'd like a guaranteed income, single-payer health care, a stronger safety net, etc. The problem is the temptation to paper over historically fraught issues to achieve that is tempting. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Safety
Politics
Problem
" Germany has spent the decades since World War II in national penance for Nazi crimes. America spent the decades after the Civil War transforming Confederate crimes into virtues. It is illegal to fly the Nazi flag in Germany. The Confederate flag is enmeshed in the state flag of Mississippi. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Flag
America
War
" You can't tolerate anybody attempting to threaten or intimidate your body. You must respond with force. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Body
Force
Respond
" Comic books have a long, fraught history with sexism. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Comic
History
Long
" 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
" If your response to the first black president is to say they weren't born in this country... you might be a white supremacist. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Black
White
Country
" I had to learn to not be so hard. And I had a wife and, at that time, a partner when Samori was born, and for most of Samori's life, a partner, who, for whatever reason, did not have to learn that and was very tender and very, very soft with him. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Learn
Born
Partner
" People know things and have a remarkable capacity to act in their individual immediate interests all the time. "
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Individual
Things
Time
" 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
" In the 1930s and the 1940s, we set up the FHA. We set up the Home Owners' Loan Corporation. We set up specific bureaus to make our communities look the way they look. "
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Home
Up
Loan