I love living around black people. Home is home. We suffer under racism and the physical deprivations that come with that, but beneath that, we form cultures and traditions that are beautiful.
— Ta-Nehisi Coates
My belief is in the chaos of the world and that you have to find your peace within the chaos and that you still have to find some sort of mission.
I do understand how hate eats at the soul and how to purge yourself of hate.
I think the body is the ultimate thing. The soul and mind are part of the body. I don't think there is anything outside of that. Your physical self is who you are. Some people feel that that is reductionist, but I don't think it is. It's just true.
It's very hard to be black in this country and hate America. It's really hard to live like that. I would actually argue it's impossible to fully see yourself.
I haven't checked, but I highly suspect that chickens evolved from an egg-laying ancestor, which would mean that there were, in fact, eggs before there were chickens. Genius.
You can't tolerate anybody attempting to threaten or intimidate your body. You must respond with force.
The president of the United States is not a king. You know? Barack Obama was elected by the American people.
One of the things that's really, really present in 'Between the World and Me' is, I am in some ways outside of the African-American tradition.
For me, my writing benefits from my experience.
Somebody once told me, black people, in and of themselves, are cosmopolitan. There's cosmopolitanism within the black experience. There's an incredible amount.
If I wrote a Jewish superhero, he'd have awesome time-traveling powers. I'd call him Doctorow.
When I see the Confederate flag, I see the attempt to raise an empire in slavery. It really, really is that simple. I don't understand how anybody with any sort of education on the Civil War can see anything else.
Forgiveness is a big part of - especially post-civil rights movement - is a big part of African-American Christianity, and I wasn't raised within the Christian church; I wasn't raised within any church.
The African-American tradition, in the main, is very, very church-based, very, very Christian. It accepts, you know, certain narratives about the world. I didn't really have that present in my house.
There are plenty of African-Americans in this country - and I would say this goes right up to the White House - who are not by any means poor, but are very much afflicted by white supremacy.
I think at places like 'Slate' or the magazine where I work, there was a really poor record of hiring African-American writers. It was really that simple. And I think with the proliferation of the Internet and Internet media, it has been a little harder to maintain that gatekeeper position.
African Americans are one of the oldest ethnic groups in this country. We been here since the beginning. Before the beginning.
We are all losers in comparison to Malala Yousafzai. But we are not all geniuses. Like me.
There are African-American families around this country - a large, large number of African-American families - that operate out of complete fear that their kids are going to be taken from them and will do anything to prevent that.
