Analysis Of Ta-Nehisi Coates Between The World And Me

“So I feared not just the violence of this world but the rules designed to protect you from it, the rule that would have you contort your body to address the block, and contort again to be taken seriously by colleagues, and contort again so as not to give the police a reason.”
—Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me, p. 9
Ta-Nehisi Coates, in a letter to his teenage son titled Between the World and Me, illustrates a candid depiction of the struggles that African Americans encounter on a daily basis. These struggles are due to the negative social structures of subliminal oppression and systemic racism which reign in the American society. There are unsaid rules that marginalize blacks, causing them to navigate the world in fear of losing
their bodies, while privileged groups, such as whites, are able to roam freely. Coates exhibits great strength in that he has proven himself resilient and unapologetically transparent in a society that has stacked the odds against him because of the color of his skin. On the other hand, Coates is limited at times because of his slightly pessimistic world view. There are many options for social work involvement in Coates life including intervention at the personal, school, neighborhood and policy levels. With the many opportunities to provide assistance it would be important for me as a social worker to be self-aware, particularly of my Christian beliefs, because Coates is not a religious person. Coates is a tenacious character who is willing to address and confront issues of inequality and injustice.
Coates goes to great lengths in describing the structural inequalities that black individuals face.
However, black literature, his experience at Howard University (the Mecca) and his experience as a journalist help Coates defy the racial structure that intends to keep him down. Education is truly power for Coates. When he reads the works of renowned black activists, he gains more insight concerning the plight of African Americans. He realizes that the structural disadvantage of racism began many years ago with slavery; it has only changed faces in the 21st century. He explains how seemingly innocent aspects are laced with systemic oppression. For example, he states “fail in the streets and crews would catch you slipping and take your body. Fail in the schools and you would be suspended and sent back to those same streets, where they would take your body” (Coates, p. 33). Basically, African Americans are often times set up to fail because of the way society works. However, attending a university does elevate one’s status. At the Mecca, Coates is exposed to not only more literature, but to African American peers who taught him practical life lessons. He voices that he “first witnessed this power [of the black diaspora] out on the Yard, that communal green space in the center of campus where the students gathered and I saw everything I knew of my black self-multiplied out into seemingly endless variations (Coates, p. 40). At Howard University, Coates gained a deeper understanding of what it meant to be black, and his education increases his social status position. Finally, Coates’ journalist position gave him the power to scrutinize the unjust events that are occurring around him. Journalism gives Coates a voice to ask questions like “Why did I live in a world where teenage boys stood in the parking lot of the 7-eleven pulling out?” (Coates, p. 63). Knowledge and the status positions of college graduate and journalist are essential to unraveling the intersectionality
of Coates’ social structures.
Though Coates has acquired higher social positions he is still prone to the power and the privilege of Caucasians. Privilege and power are often displayed in simple everyday actions. For example, Coates explains that he saw “white parents pushing double-wide strollers down gentrifying Harlem boulevards in T-shirts and jogging shorts…The galaxy belonged to them and as terror was communicated to our children, I saw mastery communicated to theirs (Coates, p. 89). Privilege and power can be hard to identify when one is the recipient, but if one is not the recipient, the absence is harshly known. Coates also describes being stopped by the police for no specified reason. White people generally have the privilege of not being fearful for their lives when a police officer approaches them. Power and privilege turn into discrimination and oppression when nothing is done to more equally distribute those two agents. For instance, an example of a privilege is being a white man. If that white man becomes a police officer he then has power. The power and privilege become discrimination and oppression if that white police officer uses his position to undermine, and even murder black individuals. Throughout his letter, Coates continually echoes that it is intolerable for people to use the power and privilege to subjugate others.
As a character, Coates has many strengths including intelligence, resilience and transparency/openness; however, his limitations emanate from his cynicism. He explains that in order to “survive the neighborhoods and shield my body, I learned another language consisting of a basic complement of head nods and handshakes” (Coates, p. 23). Coates knew that he did not belong in the streets, but he had to do what was necessary in order to survive and those actions took resilience. He is also full of knowledge and he uses his knowledge as a tool for advocacy. For Coates, the pen is mightier than the sword. He is not ashamed to describe where he came from, but he is also not afraid to express where he and other African Americans should be. He addresses the hard issue of racism in a very direct manner. The only limitation is that he does not seem to be hopeful for change. He states that when a news reporter asked him about hope “[he] knew then that [he] had failed. And [he] remembered that [he] had expected to fail” (Coates p. 10). Though it is important to remain hopeful, it may be difficult for Coates to do so considering his acute understanding of injustice and inequality.
The mission of social work is to combat injustice and inequality. As a social worker, I would intervene at the personal level by offering counseling to Coates. He has many ideas and feelings which may be increasingly identified in a dialogue with another person. Coates could also use an intervention in his Baltimore neighborhood which is plagued with gangs, guns, and violence. As a social worker, I would try to work with the local police to develop a program that encouraged positive relationships between police officers and the city inhabitants. I would also aim to facilitate a mentoring program and create a recreation center with activities such as dance and sports so that the teens would have more positive outlets of expression. The schools that Coates described need intervention as well. I would advocate for non-standardized tests and interactive learning that exceeds simply sitting at a desk and listening to a teacher with the city school education board. Lastly, I would advocate for policy reform that opposes police brutality proactively and holds police officers accountable for their actions reactively.
In order for my work to be most effective, I would have to but my own personal biases and values aside. The main value that I would have to be mindful of when working with Coates is my Christian beliefs. Coates repeatedly mentions that he is not a fan of religion. He states “I would not retreat, as did so many, into the church and its mysteries…We would not kneel before their God. And so I had no sense that any just God was on my side (Coates, p. 28). Though my faith in God is very important to me, Coates beliefs should not hinder me from helping him in any capacity that I can. I may personally disagree with his values, but that does not mean that I should vocalize it or impose my own values on him. It is important that I accept clients for who they are, and use my social work abilities to help them connect to the resources that they need.
In conclusion, Coates exploration of black essentialism in Between the World and Me reveals structural factors of racism and oppression as well as white privilege and power. The unjust environment in which he resides could benefit from intervention at a variety of levels including the personal level and the policy level. Social workers who provide interventions must always be cognizant of their own values and biases so as not to impose them on others. As a future social worker, it would be wrong for me to allow my Christian values to prevent me from providing Coates effective service. My goal would be to empower Coates to make his own decisions. Overall, Coates' character is an archetype for all black men and even black women who have taken a closer look at the world's racial injustice and desire to do something to fight it. Coates weapon of choice is his pen.