ta-nehisi coates - between the world and me
"Marriage was presented to us as a shield against other women, other men, or the corrosive monotony of dirty socks and dishwashing." (65-66)
"She said to me, 'You take care of my daughter.' When she got out of the car, my world had shifted. I felt that I had crossed some threshold, out of the foyer of my life and into the living room. Everything that was the past seemed to be another life. There was before you, and then there was after, and in this after you were the God I'd never had. I submitted before your needs, and I knew then that I must survive for something more than survival's sake. I must survive for you." (66)
"Perhaps struggle is all we have because the god of history is an atheist, and nothing about his world is meant to be. So you must wake up every morning knowing that no promise is unbreakable, least of all the promise of waking up at all. This is not despair. These are the preferences of the universe itself: verbs over nouns, actions over states, struggle over hope." (71)
"The robbery of time is not measured in lifespans but in moments. It is the last bottle of wine that you have just uncorked but do not have time to drink. It is the kiss that you do not have the time to share, before she walks out of your life. It is the raft of second chances for them, and twenty-three-hour days for us." (91) [my bold]
Solzhenitsyn - To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he's doing is good, or else that it's a well-considered act in conformity with natural law. (98)
Tuesday, August 30, 2016
Monday, August 29, 2016
between the world and me quotations (race)
ta-nehisi coates - between the world and me
"Fully 60% of all young black men who drop out of high school will go to jail." (27)
re: Queen Nzinga, "who ruled in central Africa in the 16th century, resisting the Portuguese... When the Dutch ambassador tried to humiliate her by refusing her a seat, Nzinga had shown her power by ordering one of her advisers to all fours to make a human chair of her body." (45)
"The enslaved were not bricks in your road, and their lives were not chapters in your redemptive history. They were people turned to fuel for the American machine." (70)
"You cannot forget how much they took from us and how they transfigured out very bodies into sugar, tobacco, cotton, and gold." (71)
"The truth is that the police reflect America in all of its will and fear, and whatever we might make of this country's criminal justice policy, it cannot be said that it was imposed by a repressive minority. The abuses that have followed from these policies--the sprawling carceral state, the random detention of black people, the torture of suspects--are the product of democratic will." (79)
"All my life I'd heard people tell their black boys and black girls to 'be twice as good,' which is to say 'accept half as much.'" (90-91)
"I am ashamed I made an error, knowing that our errors always cost us more." (97)
"Destroying a black body was permissible--but it would be better to do it efficiently." (112)
"She compared America to Rome. She said she thought the glory days of this country had long ago passed, and even those glory days were sullied: They had been built on the bodies of others. 'And we can't get the message,' she said. 'We don't understand that we are embracing out deaths.'" (144)
"Fully 60% of all young black men who drop out of high school will go to jail." (27)
re: Queen Nzinga, "who ruled in central Africa in the 16th century, resisting the Portuguese... When the Dutch ambassador tried to humiliate her by refusing her a seat, Nzinga had shown her power by ordering one of her advisers to all fours to make a human chair of her body." (45)
"The enslaved were not bricks in your road, and their lives were not chapters in your redemptive history. They were people turned to fuel for the American machine." (70)
"You cannot forget how much they took from us and how they transfigured out very bodies into sugar, tobacco, cotton, and gold." (71)
"The truth is that the police reflect America in all of its will and fear, and whatever we might make of this country's criminal justice policy, it cannot be said that it was imposed by a repressive minority. The abuses that have followed from these policies--the sprawling carceral state, the random detention of black people, the torture of suspects--are the product of democratic will." (79)
"All my life I'd heard people tell their black boys and black girls to 'be twice as good,' which is to say 'accept half as much.'" (90-91)
"I am ashamed I made an error, knowing that our errors always cost us more." (97)
"Destroying a black body was permissible--but it would be better to do it efficiently." (112)
"She compared America to Rome. She said she thought the glory days of this country had long ago passed, and even those glory days were sullied: They had been built on the bodies of others. 'And we can't get the message,' she said. 'We don't understand that we are embracing out deaths.'" (144)
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