The two book Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehsi Coates and How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America by Kiese Laymon present a similar issues of racial discrimination faced by the black community on a daily bases. I found these books similar in the sense that they are discussing the same issues to some degree but have a different perspective and attitude in presenting them. For example in Coates book he discussed the history, present and future of the black community, whereas Laymon is laying out his experiences that he’s faced rather than relying on history to get his point across. Both books are written as letters to someone the authors care about and hold dear to them. Coates writes this book as a letter for his son, he stated. “I did not want to raise you in fear or false memory. I did not want you forced to mask your joys and blind your eyes. What I wanted for you was to grow into consciousness. I resolved to hide nothing from you” (Coates, 111). Coates has written this book as a letter to his song to warn him and let him be aware of what has been happening and will continue to happen in the black community, along with the hardships that he might face being a dark skinned boy. Then we have Laymon, who writes a series of letter to his uncle Jimmy, who died but Laymon later learned to love and admire him.
