Author

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.

From Ta-Nehisi Coates

Somebody once told me, black people, in and of themselves, are cosmopolitan. There's cosmopolitanism within the black experience. There's an incredible amount.

From Ta-Nehisi Coates

I think at places like 'Slate' or the magazine where I work, there was a really poor record of hiring African-American writers. It was really that simple. And I think with the proliferation of the Internet and Internet media, it has been a little harder to maintain that gatekeeper position.

From Ta-Nehisi Coates

For me, my writing benefits from my experience.

From Ta-Nehisi Coates

I do understand how hate eats at the soul and how to purge yourself of hate.

From Ta-Nehisi Coates

The African-American tradition, in the main, is very, very church-based, very, very Christian. It accepts, you know, certain narratives about the world. I didn't really have that present in my house.

From Ta-Nehisi Coates

The president of the United States is not a king. You know? Barack Obama was elected by the American people.

From Ta-Nehisi Coates

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.

From Ta-Nehisi Coates

The relationship between violence and nonviolence in this country is interesting. The fact of the matter is, you know, people do respond to riots. The 1968 Housing Act was in large response to riots that broke out after Dr. Martin Luther King was killed. They cited these as an actual inspiration.

From Ta-Nehisi Coates

We've got in the habit of not really understanding how freedom was in the 19th century, the idea of government of the people in the 19th century. America commits itself to that in theory.

From Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates

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