Analysis Of Ta-Nehisi Coates's 'Between The World And Me'

Racism is coming back slowly as the years pass us. The only thing that we can do is to keep our bodies safe from all the danger that might happen. Coates feel like the racism is never going to be gone in the world. Coates really wants his son to realize that he won’t always be there to protect his son. There will be who will want to put him down and make him feel less than other people. Coates states, “You would be a man one day, and I could not save you from the unbridgeable distance between you and your future peer and colleagues, who might try to convince you that everything I know, all the things I’m sharing with you here, are an illusion, or a fact a distant past that need not be discussed” (Coates, 90). Coates feel like there will be a bride that will keep him and son from each other one day. That the son will need to know that he won’t be there in person but there as a spirit to help him. The son will need to be able to notice when he might be in danger, and it's all on him on how he reacts from it. Coates talks about how he heard little kids were told by their parents to act extra good around people. The text states, “All my life I’d heard people tell their black boys and black girls to ‘be twice as good,’ which say ‘accept half as much.’ These words would be spoken with a veneer of religious nobility, as though they evidenced some unspoken quality, some undetected courage, when in fact, all they courage, when in fact, all they evidenced was gun to our head and the hand in our pocket” (Coates,91). Coates is trying to say is that there are people that believe in racism and ain't scared to show it at times. People are knowing seeing more racism now these days, since there is a new president for America, and he doesn’t see all people equal. With the actions/ words that Donald Trump are saying towards people, makes other believe that they can also use that type of language and get away with it. We

America is supposed to be the land of opportunities. A place where you are free to do anything and become whoever you want to be but this does not apply to everyone. One of the reasons for Coates disagreement is the permanent racial injustice in America. People might think that the war between black and white people is over but this is not true. Daily, we can see many cases about racial injustice like when a white man with power treats other black workers as if they were inferior to him. Not only white people treat black people this way but there are many other cases in which you can see black folks discriminate white folks and this can also be seen through public media. Coates thinks that the war between black people and white people will be a permanent one, and because of this, he is also afraid that his son needs to be more prepared for the

Coates’ allegory of the “Dreamers” and their detrimental impact on the lives of African Americans in the US is highlighted with this declaration: “But do not pin your struggle on their conversion. The Dreamers will have to learn to struggle themselves, to understand that the field for their Dream, the stage where they have painted themselves white, is the deathbed of us all” (151). Coates is essentially claiming that the people who refuse to live in reality are subsequently robbing those who do because they instill a sense of false hope and unrealistic expectations that make every injury inflicted upon the African American community hurt even more. By extension, Coates is affirming that living in the moment rather than always thinking about the future and how to make things better is the most authentic route to happiness. Much of the misery in life derives from people in power abusing the privileges society has granted them, and the exploitation of black people in American society has solidified the idea that civilization breeds barbarism in Coates’ mind. This is further supported by Coates’ assertion that, “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). This image of black lives being chewed up and spit out by industrial America is visceral and jarring in that it shows a complete failure on the civilization’s part to protect and raise its citizens to a more prominent status and improve their lives. To Coates, the ideas of patriotism and “the Dream,” or

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.

“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.

This theme helps illuminate how black people came to be treated in America both when slavery existed and beyond into today’s society. The theme that black people are disposable bodies within American society. Because of the tradition of treating black people as objects or whose value strictly came from their ability to make profit, the idea of what it means to be black in America is imbedded in the danger of losing one’s body. Although slavery has ended, the racism remains as a violence inflicted on black people’s bodies. Coates is more than happy to emphasize that racism is an instinctive practice.

Besides experiencing childhood growing up in the rough city of Baltimore and trying to survive, he also develops himself as a scholar at Howard University during the 1990s and the chronicled, as found in his talk of the routes in which the dark body has dependably been conscious of decimation. Coates places contemporary occasions like killings of Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin in this bigger story of the dark battle between the blacks and the police. Furthermore, Coates refers to African American can start struggles over their "Black bodies" as being under attack. One of his main ideas is the "Dream" the world in which people who call themselves white in habit and the ones they do not want black bodies within.

Coates has the art of writing mastered. Throughout Between the World and Me, Coates used words like "disembody" and "black body" to force his message that white supremacy does in fact exist and it is time for the world to stop looking the other way. He does not show this in a pleading way. Instead, he uses powerful diction, as well as the depth of his personal experiences making the reader truly try to imagine oneself in that exact position to cause the audience to want change. Perhaps two of the most apparent instances, and best parts of his work, were when another African American boy pointed a gun at a younger boy in his adolescent years, and, also, when he explained how prejudiced it was that the officer that tracked down and killed Prince Jones was not charged because the cop was white. This message Coates was attempting to get across was in accordance with an article out of Social Problems: Readings that argued violence is not in fact random, but actually targets African Americans (Silver). He wrote from his heart which shows how real and dangerous the issues of black vs white are.

Painter states that African-Americans of any class, no matter how rich or poor, no matter where they lived, no matter how well or little educated, simply “became black” (page 377). In the same token, Ta-Nehisi Coates also states “a difference of kind, not degree”. These statements by the two authors illustrate the perspective of the white non-black society, and imply that the notion of racial

There is a privilege for Caucasians, to not have to think about race and the problems that occur due to racism until it pops up in the media, with the protests and marches that are occurring to raise awareness to this racial issue. Coates shows in his book that a lot of America was built on the backs of African Americans, and how some Americans have reached and achieved their dreams because African Americans have been denied theirs. Our society should care about this book Coates has written because it does not offer a solution to this difficult race issue, but it brings awareness to the reader about problems that occur in this country that we typically turn a blind eye to. This book should be read by everyone despite their race because Between the World and Me could serve as a conversation starter between the citizens of our country and allow for people of different races, religions, and gender to come up with solutions to solve this difficult problem of racial injustice, which our country continues to face. We still have a long ways to go to solving this problem, but this book brings attention to a difficult topic and if everyone read and cared about these problems, change may start

Racism is a problem many black people encounter. They must overcome hate, ridicule, and ignorance of other people. In the book, Between the World and Me, the author, Ta-Nehisi Coates explains, in a letter, racism in America to his fifteen year old son. Choosing to format it as a letter was a great idea because it let him get on a deeper, emotional level with us, the reader.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, is an award winning African-American author and journalist. His profound work is most commonly based on modern day cultural, social, and political issues that regard the African American community. In 2015, he released his second novel, Between the World and Me which was written as letter to his fifteen year old son. Throughout the book Coates describes and recalls his experiences as a young boy, while also deeply contemplating the feelings and realities that are commonly associated with being a young black man in this country. It provides an understanding of our past and also modern crisis’ and issues with regards of race, politics, and the continuous exploitation of black people.

the current state of affairs in the United States. Ta Nehisi Coates writing style is quick and

The book Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates exhibits an exceptional number of powerful themes and lessons in which that allow for the reader to connect to and reflect on throughout the text. One specific message that transpired while reading was the idea of struggle and the subject’s importance as it relates to positive progression in life. At one point in the book the author states ,“Mistakes were made. Bodies were broken. People were enslaved.

In 1619 the first African Americans were brought to America to a town called Jamestown in Virginia. This is when slavery began in North America. White men owned African American souls and destroyed their human rights, forced them into slavery, restricted them from freedom, and left them uneducated so that they would not be able to earn any power or knowledge about what was going on in the world. As Coates explains to his son some of the experiences of his life he also reminds him several times about never forgetting who he was, where he came from, who his people were, and what they have done for the others, “Never forget that we were enslaved in this country longer than we have been free. Never forget that for 250 years black people were