Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others.

- Ta-Nehisi Coates

Racism is, among other things, the unearned skepticism of one group of humans joined to the unearned sympathy for another.

- Ta-Nehisi Coates

[E]mpathy - not squishy self-serving conflict avoidance - is the hand-maiden, not the enemy, of reason and intellectual inquiry.

- Ta-Nehisi Coates

The best part of writing is not the communication of knowledge to other people, but the acquisition and synthesizing of knowledge for oneself.

- Ta-Nehisi Coates

I am not asking you as a white person to see yourself as an enslaver. I'm asking you as an American to see all of the freedoms that you enjoy and see…

- Ta-Nehisi Coates

The essence of American racism is disrespect.

- Ta-Nehisi Coates

What I’m talking about is more than recompense for past injustices—more than a handout, a payoff, hush money, or a reluctant bribe. What I’m talking …

- Ta-Nehisi Coates

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 …

- Ta-Nehisi Coates

Just because you came here in 1880, 1950, whenever, you became an American. You get to celebrate July 4th like every other American. You don't just g…

- Ta-Nehisi Coates