An Analysis Of Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between The World And Me

The most powerful message in Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates is that race is not a real thing that can be determined by a person's phenotype (the color their hair, skin, etc;). He presents blackness and whiteness as constructs used to reinforce the power dynamics of racism. Although what it meant to be white has changed so many times throughout the history of the United States, it maintained its perceived place of superiority and normalcy compared to anything, and anyone else. Between the late 1800s and the early 1900s, millions of southern, eastern and central Europeans migrated to the United States. At first, they were legally considered non-white and faced discrimination similar to African Americans, though not as harshly. By the 1950s, the opposite was true. Given the rise of the civil rights movement, the European immigrants that were not too far removed from being segregated from white Americans were now intermarrying, mingling and committing racism against African Americans together. This is evidence that: (1) Race is a concept that, although given absolutism, is blurry and ever-evolving; and (2) to be white is to agree …show more content…
For every positive thing associated with "whiteness" (purity, safety, attractive, smart, etc;), "blackness" had to be the equal, but negative, opposite (criminal, unsavory, ugly, unintelligent, etc;). The stigmas linked to race has led to active white supremacy within the black community, more commonly referred to as colorism. Colorism is something that plagues the black community and something that I have seen through personal experiences. Colorism as impacted the lives of people I hold dear, causing many of them to develop a self-hate for their skin tone and ethnic features. The same way racism created "white and "non-white", colorism created "light-skinned" and "dark-skinned"; following the same principles of positivity and