“We should seek not a world where the black race and the white race live in harmony, but a world in which the terms black and white have no real political meaning” (Coates Post-Racial 1). Ta-Nehisi Coates is an American writer, journalist, and educator best known for his novel Between The World And Me. Coates was inspired to write his novel after an eventful meeting with President Barack Obama in 2013. Coates wrote Between The World And Me in a similar fashion to James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time. While Baldwin’s novel is written towards his nephew, Coates’s is a letter to his, then, 15-year-old son Samori. Coates writes about the feelings and realities that are associated with being an African American in the United States, especially the
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This is a harsh reality that Mabel Jones, mother of Prince Jones who was murdered by Police, has to live with. Ta-Nehisi Coates had gone to Howard University before dropping out and becoming the only one of seven children to not get a college degree. At Howard, he met and befriended Prince Jones. When describing Prince, Coates stated that, “the thing to understand about Prince Jones is that he exhibited the whole of his given name” (Coates 64). Prince was a well-loved individual by students and teachers alike and had a promising future ahead of him. However, on September 1, 2000, on his way to visit his fiancée in Fairfax County, Virginia, Prince was shot and killed by Corporal Carlton Jones of the Prince George County Police force (Hewitt 1). Officer Jones was undercover at the time as a drug dealer and was driving an unmarked car. Officer Jones stated that he had followed Prince’s Jeep through Maryland and into Virginia because he had seen the Jeep in an area that was known for dealing drugs. Officer Jones believed that the car had also been involved in several incidents that also involved crime. According to Officer Jones, once Prince had pulled into a driveway he then continued to pull out of the same drive way and block Officer Jones’s driver-side door and confront him. Officer Jones stated that he had shown Prince his gun and told Prince …show more content…
These reforms include: talks of diversity, sensitivity training, and the addition of body cameras on officers. Coates, in his article “The Myth of Police Reform”, mentions that the use of body cameras is, “the least divisive and least invasive step toward reforming the practices of the men and women we permit to kill in our names.” Body cameras are helpful in police work but they also are helpful in avoiding a deeper discussion of the justice system. These measures “allow the citizens of this country to pretend that there is real distance between their own attitudes and those of the ones appointed to protect them” (Coates 78-79). The police reflect the fear and will of America and was clearly not imposed by a repressive minority. Coates states that, to “challenge the police is to challenge the American people who send them into the ghettos armed with the same self-generated fears that compelled the people who think they are white to flee the cities and into the Dream. The problem with the police is not that they are fascist pigs but that our country is ruled by majoritarian pigs” (Coates 78-79). Coates’ tells his son that a better world is not ultimately up to him, even though everyday people might tell him otherwise. The world is in need of saving because of these people who tell him that. He states that, even though it might sound like it, he is not a cynic, he loves the world
This is a harsh reality that Mabel Jones, mother of Prince Jones who was murdered by Police, has to live with. Ta-Nehisi Coates had gone to Howard University before dropping out and becoming the only one of seven children to not get a college degree. At Howard, he met and befriended Prince Jones. When describing Prince, Coates stated that, “the thing to understand about Prince Jones is that he exhibited the whole of his given name” (Coates 64). Prince was a well-loved individual by students and teachers alike and had a promising future ahead of him. However, on September 1, 2000, on his way to visit his fiancée in Fairfax County, Virginia, Prince was shot and killed by Corporal Carlton Jones of the Prince George County Police force (Hewitt 1). Officer Jones was undercover at the time as a drug dealer and was driving an unmarked car. Officer Jones stated that he had followed Prince’s Jeep through Maryland and into Virginia because he had seen the Jeep in an area that was known for dealing drugs. Officer Jones believed that the car had also been involved in several incidents that also involved crime. According to Officer Jones, once Prince had pulled into a driveway he then continued to pull out of the same drive way and block Officer Jones’s driver-side door and confront him. Officer Jones stated that he had shown Prince his gun and told Prince …show more content…
These reforms include: talks of diversity, sensitivity training, and the addition of body cameras on officers. Coates, in his article “The Myth of Police Reform”, mentions that the use of body cameras is, “the least divisive and least invasive step toward reforming the practices of the men and women we permit to kill in our names.” Body cameras are helpful in police work but they also are helpful in avoiding a deeper discussion of the justice system. These measures “allow the citizens of this country to pretend that there is real distance between their own attitudes and those of the ones appointed to protect them” (Coates 78-79). The police reflect the fear and will of America and was clearly not imposed by a repressive minority. Coates states that, to “challenge the police is to challenge the American people who send them into the ghettos armed with the same self-generated fears that compelled the people who think they are white to flee the cities and into the Dream. The problem with the police is not that they are fascist pigs but that our country is ruled by majoritarian pigs” (Coates 78-79). Coates’ tells his son that a better world is not ultimately up to him, even though everyday people might tell him otherwise. The world is in need of saving because of these people who tell him that. He states that, even though it might sound like it, he is not a cynic, he loves the world