Teju Cole
@tejucole
Followers
227,986
Following
846
Media
893
Statuses
12,073
Explore trending content on Musk Viewer
برشلونة
• 735596 Tweets
BRICS
• 619008 Tweets
Madrid
• 444864 Tweets
Bayern
• 382607 Tweets
Trump is Hitler
• 367093 Tweets
John Kelly
• 342193 Tweets
Barcelona
• 341226 Tweets
Raphinha
• 308601 Tweets
Pedri
• 98226 Tweets
Lamine
• 93681 Tweets
Casado
• 93222 Tweets
Megan
• 92097 Tweets
Peñarol
• 88900 Tweets
Hansi Flick
• 64978 Tweets
Fermin
• 48784 Tweets
Botafogo
• 46336 Tweets
Kane
• 46066 Tweets
Lille
• 44623 Tweets
INBA
• 43504 Tweets
$TSLA
• 33823 Tweets
Neuer
• 32139 Tweets
Hatch Act
• 27644 Tweets
Kompany
• 27451 Tweets
Cruzeiro
• 27346 Tweets
Muller
• 24799 Tweets
Xavi
• 23316 Tweets
Atleti
• 21478 Tweets
رافينها
• 21167 Tweets
البايرن
• 18409 Tweets
ドラフト会議
• 17497 Tweets
Benfica
• 17007 Tweets
Feyenoord
• 15049 Tweets
Writing as writing. Writing as rioting. Writing as righting. On the best days, all three.
46
2K
3K
Carefully-written fact-checked essay in the streets, unmoderated comments section in the sheets.
26
941
1K
5- The White Savior Industrial Complex is not about justice. It is about having a big emotional experience that validates privilege.
60
1K
1K
Good thing the USA won the Cold War, otherwise we might be living in a world of mass surveillance and persecution of dissidents.
74
3K
1K
I was wrong, I'm sorry. > If I was wrong, I'm sorry. > If I offended you, I'm sorry. > I'm sorry you feel offended. > Fuck you.
19
776
1K
The basic question which no public event alters: how can I, myself, in my limited sphere of influence, be more just?
67
2K
1K
Every 60 seconds in Africa, a minute passes. We can put a stop to this. Please retweet.
53
3K
923
"I support feminism but I think some women take it too far" is an answer you don't need to give to a question no one asked you.
27
901
705
2- The white savior supports brutal policies in the morning, founds charities in the afternoon, and receives awards in the evening.
21
1K
679
The wish to write. The frustration of writing. The consolation of having written.
35
505
667
Read it. It's fine. Read it again. It's fine. Send it off. Now read it again. There's an error in the first paragraph.
53
495
619
1- From Sachs to Kristof to Invisible Children to TED, the fastest growth industry in the US is the White Savior Industrial Complex.
29
952
549
How can you denounce Woody Allen and admire Lolita! How can you play xylophone and smell pizza! Penguins have tiny beards.
17
281
563
Those who need to check themselves:
Seemingly decent men. Men who are just saying. Men who are waiting to hear both sides. Men in general.
10
385
566
The 9/11 Museum charges $24 entry and has a gift shop. Museums have a way of showing us who we are, and not only through their displays.
37
643
562
Remember:
#bringbackourgirls
, a vital moment for Nigerian democracy, is not the same as
#bringbackourgirls
, a wave of global sentimentality.
34
897
500
I like a sentence that shifts gears suddenly, as I was telling your mom last night.
10
369
503
History counts its skeletons in round numbers.
A thousand and one remains a thousand,
as though the one had never existed.
—Szymborska
8
442
468
Weird. I wrote "croissant" but it autocorrected to "the terror of human life is that we are stalked by Death which may strike at any time."
33
429
479
Mourn nothing and you're a monster. Mourn everything and you'll crack. Mourn selectively and you've chosen sides.
47
584
470
The right thing for Germany to do now would be to bring Merkel on for the last fifteen minutes.
18
490
466
And, whatever you do, don't take advice from writers on Twitter. They're talking to themselves, not to you.
33
436
451
Remember: when someone does work that genuinely moves us closer to justice, immediately find the minor faults in it, and dismiss the work.
13
319
447
You'll never love a book like the book you discovered yourself and bought impulsively and read when you should have been doing other things.
22
414
430
Don't build your brand. Don't stay on message. Lose fans. Be wary and free. Be true to the irreducible complication of things.
14
325
432
h8ers gon carefully read all the relevant literature and come to an informed and fair-minded conclusion
9
335
418
7- I deeply respect American sentimentality, the way one respects a wounded hippo. You must keep an eye on it, for you know it is deadly.
27
728
410
The real reason Paula Deen's in the news is not because she's racist, but because she broke the unwritten rules about how to be racist now.
31
687
398
"What you wrote didn't please me." "I don't write to please." "But you have written things that pleased me before." "It wasn't intentional."
7
275
394
Saving your good writing for a book is like saving your good running for the marathon: if it's not a habit now, it won't be there later.
12
320
382
Dutch haven't had this much possession since the East India Company. Fat lot of good it's done them.
19
489
382
Lupita proves you can be a rich, gorgeous, brilliant, hardworking, politically-connected Ivy League grad and still be successful.
28
387
377
We're not evolving emotional filters fast enough to deal with the efficiency with which bad news now reaches us...
25
327
369
You're born against your will into a painful existence you can't exit without causing even greater pain to those you love. April Fool!
8
315
352
America ain't ready to even begin to deal with the original sin: genocidal settler colonialism. No hashtag.
25
267
356
3- The banality of evil transmutes into the banality of sentimentality. The world is nothing but a problem to be solved by enthusiasm.
7
633
346
NYT: In Journalism, No Ease
VOX: What is Journalism?
BuzzFeed: 26 Epic Journals
Upworthy: You Won’t Believe It
Slate: No, Journalism Is Easy
6
300
349
Always be humble. Unless you're non-white or female or disabled or queer (you've already had your turn).
17
195
353
Don't get excited over racist old coots: they are valves, taking pressure off conversations we need to have about systemic white supremacy.
15
256
327
6- Feverish worry over that awful African warlord. But close to 1.5 million Iraqis died from an American war of choice. Worry about that.
20
825
322
Had a chat with my taxi driver in Amman, so if you guys have any questions about the Arab world, I'm an expert now.
28
213
327
Human beings suffer,
they torture one another,
they get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
can fully right a wrong
–Seamus Heaney
5
252
326
The great Wole Soyinka turns 80 today. Here's a little thing I wrote about him last year:
http://t.co/R0BIllTy4E
http://t.co/pAddOrygWa
25
394
320
Turns out the "best player in the world" is actually ten brilliant German midfielders.
14
326
315
"Let no one be fooled by the fact that we may write in English, for we intend to do unheard of things with it."—Chinua Achebe.
21
663
314
"I'm white but..."—
*gets extra time on SAT*
*mortgage approval*
*cautioned for drug offence*
—"...I don't benefit from white supremacy."
24
183
310
You write, at best, to think through the fact of the world. Your reader reads, maybe, to be pleased or confirmed. There will be collisions.
5
207
313
4- This world exists simply to satisfy the needs—including, importantly, the sentimental needs—of white people and Oprah.
8
544
307
Pirlo receives the ball. He opens a bottle of wine. Pours. Takes a sip. Passes the ball.
22
546
315
What you read quickly you forget. What you read slowly you remember. What eludes your reading becomes a part of you by other means.
12
282
316
Have enemies. Needing to be liked by people who are never going to like you is bad for your health.
18
328
306
My major regret on my deathbed will be that I climbed into something called a deathbed.
9
241
306
I just imagined an eagle swooping over Mount Rushmore with the Stars and Stripes in its talons. That's how good that goal was.
12
357
305
Years later, as he faced his biographer, the footballer recalled the distant afternoon when a loss of balance made him ingest a man's arm.
20
285
302
To err is human. To forgive, human. But quietly keeping tabs on the motherfucker who double-crossed you, that's divine.
14
373
309
Any occasion that situates the US as just one among many nations, and not necessarily the most gifted or interesting, is a wonderful thing.
9
259
308
Every immigrant parent knows that Dr Dre is richer than Jay Z because Dre finished his doctorate.
40
395
299
City shuts down for one armed teen. Market liquidity vanishes after a false tweet. Radical vulnerability, act one, scene one.
24
627
306
They say "write what you know," so my next novel is going to be about marking emails as unread.
13
203
290
RIP Massimo Vignelli, the genius behind the graphic design and visual identity of the New York City subway.
http://t.co/E8vIvAewmd
9
372
289
We live in different time zones, out of sync but aware of each other. Then the game begins and we enter the same time: the time of the game.
12
292
274
"the freed ship sailed, and the man climbed back
out of the marvellous as he had known it."
—Seamus Heaney
7
125
277
Quite early in a conversation, you can tell if someone considers Palestinian life literally equal to Israeli life. The rest flows from that.
8
261
278
There's nothing to fear but fear itself, and accidentally favoriting a tweet from someone you're stalking.
12
165
272
Equal treatment for gays in restaurants is a slippery slope. Soon, there'll be female doctors. And then a negro will marry your daughter.
17
282
272
Who run the world? A complex configuration of individuals, corporations, and nation states with banks and military force.
#beyoncefirstdraft
6
297
266
"Oh bounteous life. We are made for both greatness and grace. The world is magnificent. Poetry matters. NOW BUY CRAP."––ads
5
300
279
Just arrived in Bethlehem. Wisely made reservations at an inn, unlike you know whom.
34
200
271
Good to have a handy one sentence answer for people who ask us to describe America: "9/11 Museum Removes 9/11 Cheese Plate From Gift Shop."
14
280
267
Slavery is presented as narratable, available, triumphant, rather than unspeakable, incomprehensible, unfinished.
10
207
258
For four years, Nigerians have tried to understand these homicidal monsters. Your new interest (thanks) simplifies nothing, solves nothing.
18
375
261
I never let being a professional writer get in the way of my being an amateur writer.
6
153
260
Nigeria has the second youngest team in the tournament, which would be wonderful if Nigeria had the second youngest team in the tournament.
37
904
258
Do good work, support good work, find whatever in the inferno is not infernal, but do it from a place of understanding, that is all.
8
248
254
That friend with whom you talk from time to time, almost never in words, but in the quiet exchange of favorites.
1
154
256
Russians taking scrap from crashed spacecraft, surrounded by thousands of white butterflies. Photo by
@Jonasbendiksen
http://t.co/Fj4lMpVIj6
11
243
257
3
To be poor is not simply to lack money. Forgetting your wallet at home doesn't make you poor. Poverty is political.
17
403
247
Late capitalism's chimeras—feminist militarists, postcolonial torturers, gay racists, etc—refusing to see that all liberation is connected.
12
168
252
War: a thing so horrifying that its perpetrators can only be called noble, selfless, and transcendent, for how else will we bear its truth?
2
185
254
Not "five things about." Not "nine maps that explain." I'm not alone in longing for writing that lives beyond the moment that occasioned it.
14
206
254
No, the World Cup has not been "marred" by protests. The most beautiful of human rights is the right of refusal. Kudos to the protesters.
12
346
243
If you're sad and you meet someone who's sad too, even if they're sad in a slightly different way, try to be kind, if you can.
8
181
248
I'll never get over the silent transfer of meaning from one consciousness to another via written sentences.
15
154
247