Between The World And Me Summary

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, is a book dealing with the topic of racism in America. In my opinion, the most powerful message in the book is when his father told him that he would have to beat him so the police wouldn’t. This statement is so powerful because the history of African-Americans has always been a struggle. Whether from oppression, segregation, violence, etc., our state of living has always been tough. Black families, more so than white families, feel obligated to protect their children by any means necessary because in many events, including recently, the system has shown the black community no mercy when it comes to enforcing in our communities. So, while other families can just say have a good day, black families
He tells a story of how he met someone with so much diversity within themselves, a half-Indian girl from California. He says it’s the first time he’s seen someone with a multiracial identity and he is confused by it. He then meets a bi-sexual woman that makes him question why he thinks black people can’t be anything but heterosexual. I can agree with this because being a Howard student, I see firsthand the reality of how diverse we are as a community. On campus there are students who are here from across the nation and some international. We have many different backgrounds and interest whether it be from the way we speak, our mannerisms, are fashion and music, and many more that show are complexity as a people. But the reality is these things don’t matter when they see someone of our shade. They generalize of us to contain who we
He tells the story of when his son learned that the police officer who killed Mike Brown wouldn’t be punished. He said he cried and he decided not to comfort him because he doesn’t want to provide false hope for this struggling society. Me personally, I appreciate what Coates is doing for his son, but I unfortunately didn’t have the male presence to warn me of the dangers of society. It would have been nice to have someone like Coates who could explain the complexity of our history and the direction in which we are headed so I could be prepared for what may have