Summary Of Between The World And Me

Between the World and Me Analysis Throughout Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates touched on several pitfalls that affect the black community. Through anecdotal stories from his childhood, Coates is able to define to both his son and the reader why being black in America is so hard. When reading this book Coates stressed the importance of black people needing to understand that America was not created for us to succeed. He goes on to explain that the American Dream of living comfortable and secure in a house with a white picket fence is one of the reasons that the black body is in such danger. Believers of this Dream are so blind to what’s going on around them due to the fact they are only focused on themselves. It is because of this explanation and the fact that a majority of the book deals with this idea, I believe the most powerful message is that the Dream is the reason why the black body is unappreciated in American society.
Dreamers are dangerous to the black body not from the standpoint that they are purposefully out to get black people, but because it is part of our nation's history to not appreciate the black body.
White people since the creation of America have taken advantage of their power and have used black people to complete tasks and as a result helped them get ahead. This is apparent in every phase of American History from slavery, Civil Rights, and even today in the era of Black Lives Matter. It speaks volumes to Coates point that in an “equal society” that black people have to create a movement known as Black Lives Matter in order to prove we exist and should be treated with equal
respect. Although a majority of the book dealt with the effect Dreamers had on the black body Coates did have several points in the book that dealt with empowering black youth rather than continuing to play the role of a victim. One important take away from the book, in general, was the importance of fatherhood in a black man's life. Coates grew up in a rough neighborhood in Baltimore with a father who left him to find his own definition of what it is to be black in America. Coates understands how this can be a difficult task for a black man when every institution around him is banking on his downfall. In my opinion, Coates wrote this book in order to help his son navigate through the world and discover himself. The power of the willfully blind was another important take away that I received from Coates’ book. Coates went into great detail on the idea that Dreamers are also the reason black bodies are being destroyed because they are only focused on achieving their goals. This is important to me because I agree with Coates statement. In order for black people to become successful in America, it is going to take white people to become conscious enough to help us speak out against the injustices facing our community. My final takeaway from the book was the prevailing perseverance that surrounds the black spirit. Coates was able to define how black bodies have never been cared for in American history by giving an outline of periods of tragedy that have defined black people’s existence. Through periods of tremendous racial hatred such as slavery, black people have stayed resilient and I feel that is important to the black identity in America.