Latest Ta-Nehisi Coates Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I don't know how you bridge that contradiction, but I felt that Barack Obama was sincere. It didn't feel like a line to me. You know, it felt like him reverting back to what was in his bones and that's, you know, optimism and a deep belief in, you know, American institutions and the American people.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Bridges, People, Optimism

  Source: www.npr.org

• It was a week after Donald Trump had won. And initially he was still optimistic. He felt that things would be OK ultimately. And I have to tell you, this is the area where, you know, I see, you know, some degree of contradiction. I mean, the president, you know, at one point when he was campaigning said I believe that Donald Trump was not qualified to run a 7-Eleven.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Running, Believe, Optimistic

  Source: www.npr.org

• Any time you have, you know, upwards of 90 percent of a demographic voting against somebody, that's a statement.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Voting, Demographics, Percent

  Source: www.npr.org

• I would flip this the other way and say over 90 percent of African-Americans voted against Donald Trump.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  African American, Way, Flip

  Source: www.npr.org

• I think the president [Barack Obama] adopted some of that same language, but took it into the White House. And I think, like, there's a crucial difference between being, you know, Joe Schmo in the neighborhood and being the head, you know, of the government that, you know, in many ways is largely responsible for those conditions in the first place.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Thinking, Government, White

  Source: www.npr.org

• My mom used to tell me, I can't use this phrase on the radio - but basically don't be one of those dudes hanging on the corner.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Mom, Phrases, Use

  Source: www.npr.org

• Part of that is ordinary African-Americans, you come out of your house and you see the conditions in your neighborhood and you see, folks in your neighborhood doing certain things that, are irresponsible. You know, the thing I always think about, you get up early in the morning to go to work and there's some dude outside drinking and you come home and the same dude is outside drinking hanging on the corner. And then this engenders a level of anger I think and a level of shame.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Morning, Drinking, Home

  Source: www.npr.org

• In particular in how [Barack Obama] has directed what you could describe as patronizing remarks to African-American communities.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Community, African American, Patronizing

  Source: www.npr.org

• [Winning the White House was an achievement], but as an African-American, [Barack Obama], I think the symbolism is in how he conducted himself. The symbolism was in - and this sounds really, really small, but it's actually big for African-Americans - the symbolism was not in being an embarrassment, but to being a figure that folks were actually proud of.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Winning, Thinking, Symbolism

  Source: www.npr.org

• [Grew up in Hawaii] that gave [Barack Obama] a kind of optimism, an ability to see things, you know, and frankly, an ability to trust, you know, in his fellow, you know, white countrymen in a way that I, for instance, you know, and the vast majority of black people I know never really could.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  White, People, Optimism

  Source: www.npr.org

• [Barack Obama] grew up in Hawaii, far, far removed from the most, you know, sort of violent, you know, tendencies of Jim Crow and segregation. He wasn't directly exposed to that. He was untraumatized.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Crow, Hawaii, Segregation

  Source: www.npr.org

• What it is is that Barack Obama was raised by a white mother and two white grandparents who, A, told him he was black and that there was nothing wrong with being black.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Mother, Two, White

  Source: www.npr.org

• I think there's a sort of, you know, very thin way of reading this that says, well, Barack Obama is biracial thus that gives him some understanding of both white America and black America, but that's not really it.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Reading, Thinking, White

  Source: www.npr.org

• [Donald Trump] went on to, you know, otherize Muslims, otherize Latinos, otherize women, that he built out from that. And it can be true that a unique, you know, individual like Barack Obama can succeed in spite of that and still be the case that that force is quite, quite strong.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Strong, Unique, Succeed

  Source: www.npr.org

• That's not an accident that Donald Trump didn't begin with, say, trade or jobs or anything, that he actually began by otherizing the first African-American president of the United States.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Jobs, African American, President

  Source: www.npr.org

• I want to be really, really clear about this. It doesn't mean that everyone or even the majority of people who voted for Donald Trump are racist or white supremacists or anything like that. But what it means is that it's not a mistake that Trump began his campaign with birthersism .

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Mistake, Mean, White

  Source: www.npr.org

• I think President [Barack] Obama deeply underestimated the force of white supremacy in American life.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Thinking, White, President

  Source: www.npr.org

• I think, as a writer, I'm in my own head.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Thinking, My Own

  Source: www.pbs.org

• What sets black people apart is not some deficit in personal responsibility. It's the weight on our shoulders. That is what's actually different. We have the weight and burden of history.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Responsibility, People, Black

  Source: www.pbs.org

• I think the sad fact is, there's a long history in this country at looking at African-American as subhuman. And I think that's reflected in the fact that, when we have problems that really are problems of employment, that are really problems of mental health, that are really problems of drugs, our answer is the police.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Country, Thinking, Long

  Source: www.pbs.org

• This feeling African-Americans have, this skepticism towards the police and the skepticism that the police show towards African-Americans is actually quite old. And it may be one of the most durable aspects of the relationship between black people and their country really in our history.

  Ta-Nehisi Coates

  Country, People, African American

  Source: www.pbs.org