In the beginning of Between the
World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates paints a picture of America that we gloss
over in our history classes. We have been taught to focus on the facts as
they are presented to us. Our country is presented as a great nation
where its people are free, where opportunity is plentiful, and where all
men are created equal. The unbecoming issues that America has made are
simply footnotes in history. Internment camps during World War II, the
TSA’s racial profiling, and the difference in incarceration time and punishment
severity between black and white offenders are some examples throughout
history.
The conception of America (and many other countries) began with colonists
imposing the “white man’s burden” on non-white inhabitants, such as the Native
Americans and black slaves. Colonists would impose their beliefs on
people they believed to be less civilized than them, although they had their
own culture that the colonists simply never attempted to learn. Instead,
they forced any group of people to conform to the religion, practices, etc.
that they believed to be superior or “right”. This was the start of a
blind eye being turned to racism in our country, something that still happens
today.
Considering movements such as Black Lives Matter and the events leading up to
this, it has become obvious how far we are from equality in our country.
It has been a painfully slow process since racism is not as outright as it once
was. This has caused much of the population to believe that because every
American citizen has the right to vote or because there is no more segregation
that we have become a country where we are all equal, but that is not the
case. Throughout this section, Coates addresses his young son and how the
deaths of young, black men had affected them both especially as the killers
walked free. The death of an innocent person somehow justified in the
eyes of the law.
Throughout this section, Coates brings up his body constantly and how easily it
could be taken from him. He could easily be beaten or killed if he were
in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was a fear instilled in him by
his parents when he was growing up to keep him safe. Coates then did the
same to his son but in an alternative way. It’s obvious from the passage
that his upbringing was much different than his son’s.
I found the section where Coates called his son the ring in the relationship
between him and mother of his child deeply moving. Many people get
married after an unplanned pregnancy, but becoming bound legally means nothing
in cementing a relationship. They watched as their peers had children and
married and the obligation of a being a spouse or a parent was not enough to
make them stay. In the case of Coates and his (now) wife, they stayed
because of their love for their son, Samori, and each other, not because of a
ring or anything else. I thought that was beautiful.
The book is written if he is speaking to Samori, which makes you feel as though
you are intruding on a deeply personal conversation between father and son.
Yet, what Coates was saying is something anyone should have to hear.
Regardless of race or upbringing, his story about his formative years shows an
eye-opening experience most people have when they transition from high school
to college. He spoke of how he needed to master the streets to survive
and that meant conforming to what his peers were doing. Then, when he
went to college he was presented with a diverse group of people who he had
never thought of complexly before. I think that is something that all of
us go through as we enter a new phase of our life. We naturally change
who we are to adapt to this new environment. In his situation, he had to
learn to be tough to protect himself and the people he loved, but when he went
to Howard he met the girl who showed him a new way to live and love.
Being there also made him question his upbringing. From why his father
was so quick to punish him physically to why there was so little representation
of black people in media. He questioned the world he lived in and
wondered why it was not better.
Honestly, reading this book made me feel disappointed in the world as it is
now. I am frustrated by the fact that so many people have fought and died
to ensure that all people can enjoy the comforts of equality, yet we are still
so far from obtaining that.
