The American Dream is something chased by many Americans and the motto of our country, but underneath this layer of comfort is the tapestry of systemic injustice that perpetuates poverty and oppression in marginalized communities. Through the works of “The Other Wes Moore” and “Between the World and Me,” the dark realities of many communities are revealed as the fear of law enforcement and socioeconomic circumstances shape individual destinies. The cycle of poverty and the deep-rooted oppression in America pushes individuals from marginalized communities further into the web of systemic injustice. This is portrayed in "The Other Wes Moore" and "Between the World and Me," where the fear of law enforcement and one’s socioeconomic circumstances …show more content…
Wes Moore's narrative reveals his low-level economic circumstances and how it impacted him and the other people in his community. Moore discusses the effect of poverty, saying “Where was God when people didn’t make enough money to feed their families? Where was God when kids were selling rocks at twelve years old, and their parents encouraged it because the kids were the main breadwinners in the home?” (Moore 111). As seen in this quote, Wes is questioning God at church because the reality of his life and the people around him is too unfair for there to be a God. Similarly, Coates offers an additional factor of systemic racism and its effects on African American communities. He reflects on the generational trauma inflicted by systemic oppression, saying "Black people love their children with a kind of obsession. You are all we have, and you are our end. I think we would like to kill you ourselves before seeing you killed by the streets that America made." Coates 82. Coates is referring to the crime-filled streets and abusive law enforcement that add to systemic oppression. Countless instances of police brutality towards African Americans leaves Coates scared for his son as he grows up in America. He references obsession and endangerment as the obsession to protect his son from the horrible things he has seen in his own life. Both authors' experiences show just how deep the layers of systemic injustice can be and how it can shape one’s destiny before they can even get a
Both Weses had several circumstances in common that happened early on in their lives. Moore narrates that he lost his father at a young age due to a medical misdiagnosis. The author says that with the loss of his father, his family had to move to the Bronx to live with his grandparents. The author Wes was the second of three children, and with the absence of his father, his mother Joy had to work multiple jobs to send him and his siblings to school. Moore adds that he was enrolled in a private school but skipped his classes often and was put on academic probation. On the other hand, the
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
Spartanburg High School introduced author and Goodreads Choice Awards Best Memoir & Autobiography nominee, Wes Moore. Not only is he an author, he’s also a social entrepreneur, producer, political analyst, and decorated US Army officer. He has appeared on numerous national broadcasts, wether it was from: Oprah, CBS Sunday Morning, The View, Syndicated Solutions, Sirius XM Satellite Radio, Ebony Magazine, USA Today, People, Essence, and many more. He’s not only known from the broadcasts he has been featured on, but from one of his New York Times Bestsellers book, The Other Wes Moore. During his lecture he gives us a brief summary about his childhood. He tells how he saw his father killed in front of him and how he and his sisters grew up in
The Other Wes Moore Essay Introduction The book “The Other Wes Moore” by Wes Moore is a story about their developments. Both the author and the subject of the book grow up, one of them had loose parenting and one one of them had their father figure dying while they were still young. Ultimately, they both went through a lot of things in their lives. They both grew up in the same place (a very bad environment), just different timelines.
Wes made some bad decisions and he landed himself in trouble. He couldn’t handle the situations he was in and that caused him to go down the wrong path. First, he got Alicia pregnant. This changed his life because he had to care for a child. It said that “The news of his imminent parenthood did not stop Wes from making time for other girls.” (Moore 101) This shows that Wes did not really care about Alicia. If I was in his shoes, I would do everything to help. He didn’t want any part of it. This goes along with the idea of adversity causing people to fail. Wes was put into a bad situation and he couldn’t get out of it. Instead of being there for Alicia, he took the easy way out by leaving and not caring about her. As Wes grew up, he started to realize that he really appreciated his mother. Before, he would run away from her and not listen but as he became more successful, he began to realize her love for her son. Wes said “She became more than a mother, she became a friend.”(Moore 160) This shows that Wes started to realize what was important in life. He looked at his mother as his friend now because before, he didn’t want to listen to her. She did a lot to help him as he grew up and he started to realize everything. He began to realize how his life was changing and how the people he knew the best wanted the best for him. This goes along with adversity because he
Have you ever wondered how your roots effect how your life turns out? The three main roots of life consists of education, poverty, and community. Each one of these things can have a direct correlation with your life. In the book, The Other Wes Moore written by Wes Moore, there are two different Wes Moores who have some issues with their roots. Neither one of them had a perfect life, but the author Wes had a little bit easier of a time. The author Wes lived in Maryland for a period of time before him and his mother moved to the Bronx. Wes’s father died when he was young because the doctors refused to treat him properly and they wound up misdiagnosing him. Wes went to a private school when they moved and would wind up going to military school,
In Ta-Nehisi Coates’ work “Between the World and Me” he writes a letter to his son detailing his life and the events that heavily impacted him as a black man. His entire work discusses the importance of the protection “the body,” the body being the physical form of the black man as well as the community of black people as a whole. Additionally, Coates details historic events critical to black history and the segregation and oppression of black people in America. The most powerful message in “Between the World and Me” is Coates’ warning to his son to protect himself, while he still expresses his own fear and understanding that he must let his son go one day. The overall message and work as a whole had a significant impact on me.
According to Wes Moore, “At each stage of [the boys’] young lives they had come across similar moments of decision, yet their choices would lead them to astonishingly different destinies” (1). Two young African- American kids lived in the same decaying city and shared the same name: Wes Moore. While one Wes Moore was sentenced to life in prison, the author Wes Moore became a Rhodes Scholar and a best-selling author. Similarities and differences pertaining to life choices and role models of both Moores were described in The Other Wes Moore.
In a book-length letter titled “Between the World and Me”, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes to his son about his personal experiences as a black man in America, a country built on the oppression of black people. Coates discusses race and police brutality in the lives of African Americans and how it constantly defeats us while some put in efforts to pursue the “American Dream”. Coates goal is to provide his son with advice based on his life at Howard and as he grows up. He does a great job at explaining to his son what it means to be African American man in this time period.
In the book, The Other Wes Moore, Wes Moore discusses several topics that are relevant in today’s society, such as crime, race, teenage pregnancy, and family. In the book, Wes Moore describe two peoples’ fate and their upbringing on the streets of the Bronx and how with little to no parental support, a child cannot grow up and become successful. Wes vividly depicts the parallels between his life and the other Wes Moore life. Wes Moore, grew up in a loving, caring household, and yet- the streets of the Bronx were taking over his life. Wes was skipping school, spray painting, and he was leading his life down the wrong path. Wes showed us through this book how his life could have been through the “other” Wes Moore, whose life did lead down that
Between the World and Me In the book Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes a letter to his 15-year-old son who is trying to make sense of his position in this racially injustice society. In the letter, Coates traces all his personal experiences through his childhood in Baltimore, his time at Howard University, encounters with the police, and even “the streets.” The explanation of how America’s violent background has now shaped the conditions for the modern black man in American is the most powerful message encountered in Coates’ Between the World and Me.
Wes Moore Essay The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore is an exploration of the different facets and circumstances that can impact your identity, values, and the choices you make. The story tells the life of the author, Wes Moore, and the “other” Wes Moore. Both had hard lives with many similarities. With these similarities also come the small, yet important differences, such as their home life, living, and family situations. The author argues that Wes is an example of moral luck, caused by his previous trauma and lack of positive influences in his early life.
Each topic connecting with my own personal experiences. Coates clarifies the use of the physical and verbal punishments in Black culture and the relation to the effects of racism. When I was younger, I thought spankings were common in every family. Later noticing, it was the norm in just the black community. Coates connects it to manifestations of fear from passed down generations, a fear of losing another person. These spankings are a scare tactic used in the home to avoid the negative encounters others would use to intervene. Looking at the news, crimes happen every day in the “act of protection”, but to what extent. More deaths of a
Ta-Nehisi Coates writes his autobiography, Between the World and Me, in the style of a letter to his adolescent son. The focus of the book is Coates experience and exploration of how and why black bodies are controlled in America. The story follows in a mostly chronological form of Coates’ young life, college experience at Howard University, and then into adulthood. Growing up in a poor neighborhood in Baltimore, Coates details the way black bodies were controlled and broken. He goes on to reflect on the all too common forms of violence born out of utter fear of control of a person’s own body.
His fear of getting shot later came to life when a peer from college, Prince Jones, was found shot dead a few blocks from his finance’s house. Coates was a protective parent and wants to guard his son against the horrors of life. He analyzed how he loves his child to a point of an obsession and reveals to his son that “I think we would like to kill you ourselves before seeing you killed by the streets that America made” (82). The concern he shows for his child is conveyed in various instances and it prompts him to become more insightful after. One notable instance being a white women pushed his son and said, “come on!”