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.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesRead
We want to believe racism is an artifact of the past, and if you have a political massacre, that contradicts that.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the misconception that racism is a thing of the past, emphasizing that current events can contradict this belief.
Ta-Nehisi Coates' quote suggests that there is a common desire to view racism as a historical issue that has been resolved. However, incidents of political violence that are rooted in racial tensions demonstrate that racism persists in contemporary society, challenging the notion that society has moved beyond these issues.
Themes
RacismPastPoliticalSocietyBelief
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech discussing current race relations in America, this quote can illustrate ongoing issues.
More from Ta-Nehisi Coates
All quotes βWe'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.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesRead
I never expected my writing to become as popular as it did.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesRead
It's hard for me to view Baltimore outside the context of what Baltimore has always been in my mind: a violent place.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesRead
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.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesRead
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.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesRead
Similar quotes
The universe has become not only conscious and aware of itself but capable in some respects of choosing its path into the future--though all three, the consciousness, the knowledge, and the choice, are dispersed over a vast crowd of beings, acting both individually and collectively.
Thomas NagelRead
A church without women would be like the apostolic college without Mary. The Madonna is more important than the apostles, and the church herself is feminine, the spouse of Christ and a mother.
Pope FrancisRead
I cannot agree with those who say that they have 'new truth' to teach. The two words seem to me to contradict each other; that _x000D_ which is new is not true. It is the old that is true, for truth is as old as God himself.
Charles SpurgeonRead
She stops, pauses, turns to the left to glance at some possible threat or irregularity, and then continues to the north. This motion, so intensely human, transcends time.
Mary LeakeyRead
The gloomiest way of describing the ancient world is it is misogyny from A to Z, really.
Mary BeardRead
The deepest, the only theme of human history, compared to which all others are of subordinate importance, is the conflict of skepticism with faith.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead