The “black body” is an ongoing motif in Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me that is used in many ways to explain the plight of black people in America. The term “black body” is implicitly used as a way to establish a clear difference from being in a “white body” concurrent with the standards of white America. Coates uses the term on quite a literal level in order to assert that black people are in a constant struggle to protect their right and security of their own bodies. Coates draws connections between the past and the present through his use of black bodies, indicating that although certain aspects of life have certainly changed for African Americans, struggling with black identity has managed to transcend time. Writing within
