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Racism is, among other things, the unearned skepticism of one group of humans joined to the unearned sympathy for another.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Racism involves a prejudgment against one group while providing unwarranted favor to another.

In this quote, Ta-Nehisi Coates highlights the unfairness of racism as it reflects a bias where one group is viewed with skepticism purely based on their identity, while another group receives unwarranted sympathy. This duality of perception contributes to systemic inequalities and demonstrates how prejudices affect social dynamics.

Themes

RacismSkepticismSympathyBiasInequality

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in discussions about diversity and inclusion initiatives in the workplace.

More from Ta-Nehisi Coates

There's a kind of optimism specifically within Christianity about the world - about whose side God is on. Well, I didn't have any of that in my background. I had physicality and chaos.
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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.
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I never expected my writing to become as popular as it did.
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It's hard for me to view Baltimore outside the context of what Baltimore has always been in my mind: a violent place.
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If I could have anything - you know, and this is across the board for any presidential candidate - I would have a greater acknowledgment of history in our policy and in our affairs.
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You can't make a direct comparison between middle-class African Americans and middle-class white Americans, affluent African Americans and affluent white Americans. The amount of wealth tends to be less.
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