In the book Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates discusses what it is like to inhabit a black body. He draws upon his memories of his childhood, his teenage years, and recent times in order to illustrate the changes he has faced in how he views himself and others.
Coates first discusses his childhood, claiming that being black in Baltimore was to “...be naked before all the elements of the world, before all the guns, fists, knives, crack, rape, and disease,” (17). People often carried guns, prepared to shoot and destroy anyone whom they selected, and the streets turned every day into a puzzle, with each wrong answer risking “...a beatdown, a shooting, or a pregnancy,” (22). No one was safe from what could happen, leading to gangs and
Coates first discusses his childhood, claiming that being black in Baltimore was to “...be naked before all the elements of the world, before all the guns, fists, knives, crack, rape, and disease,” (17). People often carried guns, prepared to shoot and destroy anyone whom they selected, and the streets turned every day into a puzzle, with each wrong answer risking “...a beatdown, a shooting, or a pregnancy,” (22). No one was safe from what could happen, leading to gangs and