Coates 'Letter To His Son'

As a young colored women living in LA County, I have always been fascinated with the police approach and attitudes towards minorities and rural part of LA. I was aware with the gangs’ situation in major cities of country, including LA. Yet, I was unaware of the history and rise of gangs etc. When I came across the movie,”Bastards of the Party”, I was thrilled and excited. I could relate to this documentary with the theories such as racial segregation and white supremacy. I was also able to relate to this documentary with Coates reading the “between the world and me.” Coates work is not a work of inspiration or optimism. It is not written for white people - not written to comfort them, pat them on the back for their occasional acknowledgment

Since the time of slavery, racism has become a systematically integrated into the subconscious of nearly all Americans, and this subconscious bias can often go undetected by even the people who reside in it. In “The Good, Racist People,” Ta-Nehisi Coates shines a light on American on these social norms and lifestyles which many “good Americans” might not necessarily consider racism. Going beyond what most readers consider obvious, such as lynching and segregation policies, Coates brings up the real example of a deli employee falsely accusing an African-American man of shoplifting. On the basis of a mere assumption. When that African-American man was identified as Oscar winning actor Forest Whitaker, the incident caught national attention. The

Prince Jones was wrongfully killed by the police by a PC County officer in Northern Virginia. He was accused of trying to run the police officer over with his jeep not far from his fiancé’s house, whom he was visiting. As time went on, details about the shooting rose, that only confirmed on what I assume, Coates already was thinking. The cop never showed his badge and was dressed like an undercover cop, Prince was shot several times and officers did little to investigate Prince’s death. This was so profound to Coates, because of a few reasons. First, he knew that could have/could be him one day. He knew that police stereotype younger black men who “look like they are up to no good.” This happens all over America, and Coates grew up in a world

As African Americans we are faced with more death opportunities than other races. We encounter multiple threats in our everyday lives including police brutality, gang violence, and drugs. Since the beginning of time African Americans have always fell victim to police brutality deaths in high percentages. From Emmet Till to Eric Garner, the trend of police brutality deaths on African Americans never have ceased that is another reason why Coates wrote this letter to inform his son of all the injustices we face as a community. In the letter Coates talks about how he had a gun pulled on him in the sixth grade by another kid.

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

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

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.

This book tackled many situations that people of color face on an everyday basis. For example, in one situation Coates and his son were faced with mistreatment. A white lady pushed Coates son, rushing him to hurry up, in an act of showing who was boss, the author tells how he became upset with the situation. What ended up happening was that because of the way Coates defended his child people began to scream at him and threaten to call the police for his behaviors. He states that he faced a state of shock, he was unaware, how cruel people could be and how much power white people attained. (94) This example shows how people misjudge a person of color it doesn’t matter if they did something right, they are being called out just by the pigment of their skin. It goes to show that the statement Coates said was true “not being violent enough could me my body. Being too violent could cost me my body.” (28) Either way one may look at a situation, for a person of color, it can go bad and seeing through the eyes of this author we become aware that social racism still exists in today’s

Even if it is hard to accept and understand; for many readers, it is a striking self narrative about Coates’ experience of growing up at a disadvantage and a fight to make it to this idea of an American dream. However, Coates’ view on this dream, becomes more pessimistic as he becomes older. At first he believes the dream is achievable, but after the wrongful murder of Prince Jones and the other injustices such as Trayvon Martin and Freddie Gray, the dream become tarnished. The killing of Jones proved to be a turning point, because it showed that no matter how well off, and how successful you want to be, the single act of an unjust racially driven killing, is all it took to end Prince Jones’ dream. Coates states, “The Dream seemed to be the pinnacle, then ---- to grow rich and live in one of those disconnected houses… The Dream seemed to be the end of the world for me, the height of the American ambition.” This quote opens the reader to the life of young black men in today's times struggle to not only succeed but survive. It shows the predisposition that blacks face when they are born in America. This book connects with people of all races, because it opens the doors to the real world, that so many people were trapped

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).

The two passages on The Atlantic discuss the race and crime, fairness and discrimination. In Coates’s article, he indicates the dilemma of black family in job market. For racial discrimination, the black community suffers inequality in seeking a job. They are regards as criminals even though they were not. Even Coates’s does not mention in the text, I think the challenge of employment makes many black families in their way to criminals in the age of mass incarnation. Thus, the economic burden falls on mothers when the unemployment rate among black men still remains high. Such incredibly high rate has a long-lasting effect on their families especially for their children. When parents are busy with works, children are neglected from disciplining.

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

In the 21st Century, during a period of racial discrimination, a political African American activist, Ta-Nehisi Coates, presents Letter to My Son to insist that the government system needs to be changed so that African Americans could be granted a chance in their community to not be abused and violated by the government. In an attempt to support his claim about injustice of African Americans, Coates reminds his readers that the government system and federal laws contributed to the abuse of a black person’s body and mind in their community. Thusly, Coate’s underlined purpose of comparing the body and mind of a white and black man’s power during the slavery period was to emphasize the change in the government system to give African Americans their rights to be able to live in a society without injustice or abuse. He later adopts a critical and sympathetic tone to simultaneously scare the government to change their laws for all people of African descent in their society.

At the time that I am writing you this letter, horrendous things are happening to the black community, these things got me thinking about you and your future. Just like the novel Between The World and Me, Coates wrote a letter to his son and the world to enlighten them about the life in America and America true history. “I write to you in your fifteenth year. I am writing you because this was the year you saw Eric Gardner chocked to death for selling cigarettes, because you know that Renisha McBride was shot for seeking help, that john Crawford was shot down for browsing in a department store. And you have seen men in uniform drive by and murder Tamir Rice, a twelve year old child whom they were oath-bound to protect. And you have seen men in the same uniform pummel Marlene Pinnock, someone grandmother, on the side of the road. And you know now, if you did not before, that the police departments of your country have been endowed with authority to destroy your body”. (Coates 9), the author just explained to his son, how horrible life is for a black person living in America. He listed all these incidents that happened in the last two years and none of these people family got the justice that they deserve. I really don’t, maybe staying in Haiti would have been safer for you. In Haiti everyone is the same race, I am not going to get pulled over in Haiti because another black thinks that because I am black, I must be a criminal or doing something wrong. Therefore in Haiti you