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
The soul is part of the body. The mind is part of the body. When folks do physical violence to black people, to black bodies in this country, the soul as we construe it is damaged, too - the mind is damaged, too.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the interconnectedness of body, mind, and soul, particularly in the context of racial violence.
In this quote, Ta-Nehisi Coates asserts that physical violence against individuals, particularly black individuals, does not only inflict physical harm but also affects their mental and spiritual well-being. He highlights the deep connections between the body, mind, and soul, suggesting that acts of violence resonate beyond the physical realm, causing lasting damage to the individuals' overall existence.
Themes
ViolenceRaceBodyMindSoulInterconnectedness
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in discussions about racial injustice and its deep societal impacts.
More from Ta-Nehisi Coates
All quotes →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
Masonry is not a religion._x000D_ He who makes of it a religious belief, falsifies and denaturalizes it.
Albert PikeRead
There are accents in the eye which are not on the tongue, and more tales come from pale lips than can enter an ear. It is both the grandeur and the pain of the remoter moods that they avoid the pathway of sound.
Thomas HardyRead
We have a love affair with the idea of the 'natural,' even though we, as a species, are about as unnatural as you can imagine.
George M. ChurchRead
I think the greatest of people in society carved niches that represented the unique expression of their combinations of talents, and if everyone had the luxury of expressing the unique combinations of talents in this world, our society would be transformed overnight.
Neil Degrasse TysonRead
There is no Master but the Master,” he said, “and QT-1 is his prophet.
Isaac AsimovRead
Global markets must be balanced by global values such as respect for human rights and international law, democracy, security and sustainable economic and environmental development.
Anna LindhRead