https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/12/ta-nehisi-coates-obama-transcript/510965/

But I also, I think, by that point would have benefited from enough circumstances in which assuming the best in people had paid off—where there had been a teacher who had really been helpful and looked out for me even when I didn’t completely deserve it. Or, you know, just witnessing the example of a Dr. King, or an Arthur Ashe. And so I’m coming of age at a time where you’ve got the strength and defiance of a Malcolm or an Ali, and you’ve also got the soulfulness and the moral strength of a King. And those things are speaking to each other. They’re in a conversation. And you’re saying to yourself, I can draw from both of those traditions. And there may be times where it is right to be angry and defiant. And there may be times where you’ve got to give the country and white people the benefit of the doubt. And if you’re so eager to give them the benefit of the doubt that they slap you down and you don’t know it, that’s a problem. But if you’re so invested in the anger that you don’t seen when somebody is putting out their hand in a sincere gesture of friendship, then you’ve now become your own jailer. It’s not just someone else jailing you.