Analysis Of The Book ' By Ta Nehisi Coates '

Coates spent his childhood years in a poor Baltimore public school, a system that “mostly meant always packing an extra number 2 pencil and working quietly” (Coates 25). He grew up believing that “The world had no time for the childhoods of black boys and girls” (Coates 25). School was not to him a place of education but rather an institution whose purpose was to train the students to obey and conform. “Algebra, Biology, and english were not subjects so much as opportunities to better discipline the body” (Coates 25).

Ta- Nehisi creates pathos by also using his personal life to allow the readers to feel his past experiences. Also, the tone of the letters and the fact that is is indeed written for his son informs the audience about his concern for his son and his future. Coates challenges our understanding of America, “white America.” Coates embraces the fact that white supremacy is indeed in full effect and that we, as a black society are not aware or the fact, nor are we coming together to find a solution. As he quotes, “if we don't move soon, we are all going to die,” he speaks too the black society, rich and poor. Those with power and without, with knowledge and ignorance, if the black community does not come together we will continue to fail to the system and continue to lose lives. One example he uses for this is the system of police brutality. For many years police brutality has been in effect, where a white police officer approaches an

Racial injustice and Black oppression is a topic seen in every newspaper and on every news station today. A topic considered taboo in most social situations, is taken on by Tu-Nehisi Coates in “A Letter to My Son”. Coates creates an environment of familiarity, acceptance and relatability for the reader by using powerful words choice and language that invokes emotions. Vulnerability and anger from his experience incorporate a personal view and stake in the heated topic which is enhanced by a letter which eases tension on a heated topic.

Coates provides readers with a lesson in American history and explains to his son that race is not reality, but that “Americans believe in the reality of ‘race’ as a defined, indubitable feature of the natural world” (Coates 2015; 7) He brings the reader inside the America in which he lives. He argues that “America’s problem is not its betrayal of ‘government of the people,’ but the means by which ‘the people’ acquired their names,” meaning that America has only ever represented and supported white people, that America was founded on a system of racial bias (6). He draws attention to the struggles that peoples of color, especially black people, have faced. Those struggles generate fear, which is one of the main ideas in the

“Between the World and Me”, by Ta-Nehisi Coates, is a letter written to his son about what it means to be black and how tough it is to be a part of this race in the United States of America. In this book, Coates talks about his life in the black community, starting from childhood memories all the way to present day. Coates also tries sends a message, which is that his son should not lower his guard and be completely confident about who he is, instead he should be afraid about what the world is capable of doing to a black man. In this work, Coates disagrees on what it means to be black or white in America.

Not only being a gangster of the streets can be a reason for having your body taken, but also illegally selling cigarettes and simply walking home with a hood on can both be reasons for someone to come and “take your body”. These ideas are clearly and evidently illustrated by Coates in his use of the names of unarmed African Americans like Eric Garner and Trayvon Martin, who were innocently killed by people claiming to be the protectors. Coates not only references the unneeded deaths of these and other African Americans, but he also refers to the way justice is taken after the incident...it isn’t. It’s like after every death of an unarmed black person the justice system wants to get back at the public and the

“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.

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.

The novel starts with Coates addressing his son, Samori.He begins recounting a time when he was invited on a talk show and the host asked him what it meant to lose his body, looking for an explanation as to why Coates “felt that white America’s progress, or rather the progress of those Americans who believe that they are white, was built on looting and violence.” This turned out to be a very heavy, intense, and loaded question. Coates went on to explain to his son that America was built on the oppression, abuse, and exploitation of black people, of their bodies, which only intensifies the hypocrisy of the democratic foundation that America prides itself on. The recent murders of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Renisha McBride, and other black people and “the destroyers who were rarely held accountable” prove that the disregard and mutilation of black bodies is embedded in America’s DNA, and no one gives it a second thought. The American “dream” that is built on the purity and innocence of wanting happiness was only ever made plausible by the oppression of black people, who still struggle to achieve that dream because they were abused into a life of silence and fear. “The Dream rests on their backs, the bedding made from their bodies.” Coates went on to explain how this history of exploitation and the fear that’s been rooted into the lives of black people in America followed him throughout his schooling and on the streets of his neighborhood. The schools that he was sent to discouraged black children, rather than encouraging growth and facilitating a healthy learning environment. The streets were carefully orchestrated for self defense. You had to protect yourself, because you knew the law wouldn’t. At Howard University, “the Mecca”, the excitement of witnessing the diversity that flooded 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

Between the World and Me has been called a book about race, but the author argues that race itself is a flawed, if anything, nothing more than a pretext for racism. Early in the book he writes, “Race, is the child of racism, not the father.” The idea of race has been so important in the history of America and in the self-identification of its people and racial designations have literally marked the difference between life and death in some instances. How does discrediting the idea of race as an immutable, unchangeable fact changes the way we look at our history? Ourselves? In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and the current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the

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.

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 Ta-Nehisi Coates’s book Between the World and Me, many different views of the world are addressed the main view his own the view of the world from a black man in America’s perspective. His book also explains how his perspective of the world changes based on experiences that have helped shape him. My main takeaway from the book is to never stop learning and broaden your view of the world.