QuoteProject
The relationship between violence and nonviolence in this country is interesting. The fact of the matter is, you know, people do respond to riots. The 1968 Housing Act was in large response to riots that broke out after Dr. Martin Luther King was killed. They cited these as an actual inspiration.
Ta-Nehisi Coates
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote highlights the complex relationship between acts of violence and societal change.

In this quote, Ta-Nehisi Coates reflects on how acts of violence, such as riots, can compel significant political and social responses from authorities. He points to the 1968 Housing Act as a tangible result that emerged in part due to the unrest that followed Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination, suggesting that such responses reveal deep-seated issues within society that sometimes only surface through conflict.

Themes

ViolenceNonviolenceRiotsResponseHousing ActSocietyChange

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a discussion about social justice movements during a panel on race relations.

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.
Ta-Nehisi CoatesRead
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.
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

This world's existence is one night long. There's a great lively gathering that night, but some people sleep through it.
RumiRead
Let woman's claim be as broad in the concrete as the abstract. We take our stand on the solidarity of humanity, the oneness of life, and the unnaturalness and injustice of all special favoritism, whether of sex, race, country, or condition. If one link of the chain is broken, the chain is broken.
Anna Julia CooperRead
Life is the farce we are all forced to endure.
Arthur RimbaudRead
As soon as one identifies, challenges and overcomes illegitimate power, he or she is an anarchist. Most people are anarchists. What they call themselves doesn’t matter to me. The world is full of suffering, distress, violence and catastrophes. Students must decide: does something concern you or not? I say: look around, analyze the problems, ask yourself what you can do and set out on the work!
Noam ChomskyRead
So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.
Bertrand RussellRead
The most virtuous are those who content themselves with being virtuous without seeking to appear so.
PlatoRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.