Ta-Nehisi Coates Quotes

Have the colored people done anything to justify the prejudice against them that does exist in the hearts of so many white persons and, generally, of one great political party in this country? Have they done anything to justify it? No, sir.

The reason people think it's important to be white is that they think it's important not to be black.

Ronald Reagan is the President who is more responsible than any for the fact that white racism is both tolerated and even fashionable again in America.

I didn't really understand racism because I grew up in an all-black society, so I didn't see how it was possible not to like me!

No one who's white thinks he's innocent. No one who's black thinks he's guilty.

My personal opinion is that you can't be racist towards white people. You can be prejudiced about them, but being prejudiced isn't an illegal act, whereas being racist can be.

It's no surprise that White people say things when they are together about Black people.

I've been the best player on every team that I played on, so if I can't be the poster child of your team, then what else is it? It's got to be a black-white issue. Every white player I know who's the best player on their team is the poster child of that team.

Clearly, the Obama presidency hasn't wiped out racial prejudices.

We're not so much anti-black as we are pro-white.

There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president.

Racial identity is simply forbidden to whites in America and across the entire Western world. Black children today are hammered with the idea of racial identity and pride, yet racial pride in whites constitutes a grave evil.

The history of slavery in this country has affected not only how black people see themselves, but how white people see black people as well, and the roles they're meant to play... I'm aware of it, as a person of color.

As you keep pulling back the layers of how deeply rooted anti-blackness and white supremacy are in this country, it is exhausting, and it is traumatizing.

While everyone has racial bias, I reserve the word 'racist' to describe the bias that white people have - our collective bias is backed by institutional power.

Being of color in America by no means amounts to a constant barrage of negativity. However, unlike being white, being of color means one's race is a constant issue.

There were only ever two black kids at my school. I never considered myself to be 'a black kid'. I was who I was. Which isn't to say things haven't happened to me that wouldn't have happened if I wasn't black.

And I ask why am I black, they say I was born in sin, and shamed inequity. One of the main songs we used to sing in church makes me sick, 'love wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

Racism is not dead. Definitely, there are these biases.

You can't get much whiter than me.

My answer to the racial problem in America is to not deal with it at all. The founding fathers dealt with it when they made the Constitution.

There's no such thing as reverse racism.

As a child and a teenager, my attitudes and actions assumed the superiority of my race in almost every way without knowing or wanting to know anybody who was black, except Lucy. Lucy came to our house on Saturdays to help my mother clean. I liked Lucy, but the whole structure of the relationship was demeaning.

If I were white, I'd get less criticism.

Since anti-racist individuals did not control mass media, the media became the primary tool that would be used and is still used to convince black viewers, and everyone else, of black inferiority.