618 Quotes by Ta-Nehisi Coates

The popular mocking of reparations as a harebrained scheme authored by wild-eyed lefties and intellectually unserious black nationalists is fear masquerading as laughter.

I did not tell you it would be okay because I never believed it would be okay.

You and I, my son, are that "below." That was true in 1776. It is true today. There is no them without you, and without the right to break you they must necessarily fall from the mountain, lose their divinity, and tumble out of the Dream.

Never forget that we were enslaved in this country longer than we have been free. Never forget that for 250 years black people were born into chains-whole generations followed by more generations who knew nothing but chains.

All my life I'd heard people tell their black boys and black girls to "be twice as good", which is to say "accept half as much". [...] This is how we lose our softness. This is how they steal our right to smile.

The Knowledge Rule 2080: From maggots to men, the world is a corner bully. Better you knuckle up and go for yours than have to bow your head and tuck your chain.

Mostly they all were products of single parents, and in the most tragic category - black boys, with no particular criminal inclinations but whose very lack of direction put them in the crosshairs of the world.

No matter was the professional talkers tell you, I never met a black boy who wanted to fail.

This is one of those stories where the feeling of the moment stands in for visual details.