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Quote by Ta-Nehisi Coates

“I was raised on the struggle of elders - iron collars, severed feet, the rifle of dirty Harriet, and down through the years, the Muslims and regal Malcolm. But mostly what I saw around me was rank dishonor: cable and Atari plugged into every room, juvenile parenting, niggers sporting kicks with price tags that looked like mortgage bills. The Conscious among us knew the whole race was going down, that we'd freed ourselves from slavery and Jim Crow but not the great shackling of minds. The hoppers had no picture of the larger world. We thought all our battles were homegrown and personal, but, like an evil breeze at our back, we felt invisible hands at work, like someone else was still tugging at levers and pulling strings.”

Quote by Ta-Nehisi Coates

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Ta-Nehisi Coates
Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates is an American writer known for his insightful social commentary and literary works. His writings often focus on themes of race, history, and social justice, with his most famous work being 'Between the World and Me', which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2015. more

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“Gardens Souls digging and grieving
Under spades so silver
That outcast dawn. The earth becomes lighter
Yet grows darker with each inch
The shovel takes into the dirt. The white of the texture
That once before touched our hands
In innocence leaps into forgiveness. The grave is deep and uneven,
Its lines are simply met with even words
That haunt the living and haunt our worst. Purple shadows reckoning our streets,
Leaving the darkness to sleep
With a mantle of marble at least. The moon's line shows sorrow
On hands that dig down far
And reveal the things — that dawned on us before.”