African American Communities

America is seen as the country of liberty and equality; however, internal conflicts ruin such perceptions of America. Ta-Nehisi Coates writes about an American internal conflict of racial inequality in his open letter “Letter to My Son”, which was published by The Atlantic on July 4th in reference to Independence Day. He claims that the American Dream that many citizens strive for is creating a racial gap in socio-economic equality. Throughout Coates’s open letter to his son, Coates uses his ethos appeal as an educated individual and pathos appeal as a loving father in order to build up his convincing argument of African-American inequality and to appeal to his intended audience, who are parents of all ethnicities; however, his lack of logos and use of situational experiences weakens his argument due to the lack of compatibility with his intended audience.

Between the World and Me, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, is written as a letter to his son about realities associated with being black in the United States of America. His tone is somewhat poetic and quite bleak, based on his personal experiences. The book is intense, it is an address to a nation that ignores its own blatant history of racism, a nation that does not prosecute police officers who kill innocent black citizens, a nation that supports a policy of mass incarceration. He writes about growing up in Baltimore, Maryland and details the ways in which institutions (school, police, and the streets) discipline, endanger, and threaten to harm black men and women. Between the World and Me is an intimate confession of the fears of a black American father.

The number of two-parent African American households is dissolving. According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, the black family has declined from 80% in 1890 to 39% in 1990. The result of conflict, and warring souls in the African American community, this trend can be stopped and reversed. The African American family must first gain an understanding of what is causing this dissolution, then they can be taught about what principals and skills they must adapt in order to reverse it. Once this is accomplished, the black family must be given opportunities to share this information. By taking these steps, two-parent African American families would once again be prevalent in the United States.

The US is appealing in the eyes of other countries, and even ourselves, because of the “free” and “equal” characteristics we claim ourselves to have, such as: freedom of religion, freedom to own private property, and freedom of equal justice. However, in the eyes of an African America, Atlantic Monthly Journalist, we see that all of these freedoms find a loophole when it comes to the black community. In Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book Between the World and Me, he writes from a political, yet deeply personal standpoint to analyze today’s version of racism. Coates strays away from his usual journalist works to a more deeper and personal view. His book is devoted to his fifteen-year-old son, Samori, and provides him with guidance through the struggle of racism; all while letting Samori fend for himself. Coates’ lets his son know all this through history, and heritage; of his own and of America’s.

In the United States early history, Native Americans, Africans and Europeans were marginalized by White People, and categorized as the minorities because they were seen as the inferior race. For nearly three centuries, the criteria for membership in these groups were similar, comprising a person's appearance, their social circle (how they lived), and their known non-White ancestry. History played a major part, as persons with known slave ancestors were assumed to be African (or, in later usage, black), regardless of whether they also had European ancestry. Most often these minorities face significant discrimination in various forms whether through voting, law policy, unequal pay, or even implicit racism, minorities of all kinds have been and still are being put down today. The book Between the World and Me is a letter to Ta-Nehisi Coates’s fifteen-year-old son, Samori. He weaves his personal, historical, and intellectual development into his ruminations on how to live in a black body in America. Not only does Coates give his personal experience in how he experience in first hand discrimination, racism, marginalization but he also gives vivid images on how he lived multiple worlds and how those experiences changed him. In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, Gloria Anzaldua exposes her feelings about social and cultural difficulties that Mexican immigrants face when being raised in the United States. She establishes comparisons among English, Spanish and their variations on how

In part one of “Between the World and Me,” Coates gives constant examples on how the black community deals with the loss of their bodies and violence on the daily. He makes his argument by being brutally honest. He does not hold back when talking on the subject, making the reader feel somewhat convicted after reading. He uses the element of right timing throughout part one to show how intense racism still is.

“And though I could never, myself, be a native of any of these worlds, I knew that nothing so essentialist as race stood between us. I had read too much by then. And my eyes—my beautiful, precious eyes—were growing stronger each day. And I saw that what divided me from the world was not anything intrinsic to us... ” (Coates 154) Coates understands that seeing the world from different perspectives humbles the mind. He no longer had to live with the stigma of being a black man in America.

“If you were black you were born in Jail” a references from a writer Malcolm X, Coates identified these words to the way the United states treated African American. He describes the mistreatment of African American to be uncalled for, realizing that we live in a white world not mixed society. Minorities live in a place where they fear, where they are not in control of their own bodies. Coates states that because of the color of our skin we are not free, we are may accomplish things in the long run but bias is everywhere and in any given time a life can be taken away and it is not in our control. Coates title “between the world and me” is a great demonstration to what he goes through as a man of color. We see that the theme he was going for was

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates is a book that demands attention in today 's society where racism and hostility towards the black community are still very common. The book is written in the form of a letter to Coates’s son where he examines the black body and how it is viewed in the world by white americans. Coates gives insight into relevant social justice issues such as Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Trayvon Martin and provides an intense reality depicting the life of those in the black community. Coates describes his life growing up and explains the ever changing realizations he comes to regarding the black body as he grows and develops. He takes the readers on a journey through his experiences and education, allowing us to directly see his opinions regarding the black body develop and reshape over time. Coates focuses in on his different forms of education and how they influenced his opinions on power and freedom of the black body. Ultimately through his life experiences and education Coates realizes that the black body can be viewed as simultaneously powerful and powerless within society.

In the Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates addresses to his son, what it is like being black in the United States. He explains what race is in America and how it shapes us as a country. He examines both personal and historic events to explain to his son what it is like to be black. Coates offers no answer to any of the problems, but he provides his son with his own experience and thoughts. Coates teaches many different lessons to his son, but he puts extreme emphasis on the fact that despite the black body is fragile, the black mind is not.

Maroon societies are groups shaped by runaway slaves in the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States of America. These different societies varied from small communities that lasted a little less than a year to more prosperous communities holstering thousands of members and existing for generations and centuries. Maroon communities were places where runaway slaves could find safety, shelter, food, and support. Running away was a crime back in those days and therefore, if caught could result in severe punishment, being returned to its owner, or death. The maroons in the Revolutionary period was from 1775-1783. Enslaved Africans escaped into the American wild to outline their own distinctive gatherings - a New World modification of an African

Generally speaking, I believe Coates most powerful message encountered in Between the World and Me was him talking about what it’s like to live life in the body of a black individual; before his time, as in during slavery, during his time, and after his time, as in during his son’s aging period. Coates explained the life of the living in a black body and everyday treatment. For example, Coates stated “I saw it in their customs of war… watching two shirtless

Race, gender, nationality, ethnicity, poverty, and sexual orientation, all play a role in developing one’s identity and more often than not, these multiple identities intersect with blackness. Being that American society has deemed colored people and populations as minoritarian subjects, African diaspora people can be seen making safe spaces for themselves to survive as individuals and as a part of communities.

There are families all over the United States today that have to deal with challenges because of the color of their skin; even if they are white, black, brown, tan. Challenges are present in everyone’s life and learning how to deal with them is a process in life. Do black men in the America today have to face the stereotype of thugs if they were a hoody at night? Absolutely. Do white men face stereotypes? Absolutely, but they are not the same. Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote this letter to his son, so he could have a better understanding of the meaning of being black and also he was trying to give insight to help him along though life. It does not matter if you agree with Coates or not, this book could open the eyes of all people of all different races,

Groups of humans have always identified themselves as distinct from neighboring groups, but such differences have not always been understood to be natural, immutable and global. In this way, the idea of race that we use nowadays came about during the historical process of exploration and conquest. This process brought Europeans into contact with groups from different continents.