Ta-Nehisi Coates Advantage To Mecca

For practicing Muslims, a pilgrimage to Mecca is meant to cleanse a person. The rebirthing erases all negative aspects, in hope for a positive path. Ta-Nehisi Coates made his own pilgrimage away from a white dominated society and found his Mecca at Howard University. The foundation of his Mecca was black history. At a young age, it became clear to Coates that traditional education failed him. He found his Mecca, in part, through self directed independent study and discovering himself as he transitioned to adulthood.
Traditional education focuses on Western Civilization for the curriculum. The times black people were brought up was during Black History Month, as if they didn’t deserve to be taught about year round. During this month, films showed African-Americans getting hurt because they wouldn’t defend themselves when attacked during protests. The school wouldn’t allow talk of Malcolm X in the classroom because he didn’t believe in the nonviolent approach. The education system taught the dominant narrative, and so Coates sought the unknown parts of history in the library. Coates claims …show more content…
“What was required was a new story, a new history told through the lens of our struggle” (44). Coates saw the need for a new history in Malcolm X. Coates felt a connection to Malcolm X because he too studied books like those in the library, despite being behind bars. Malcolm X may have inspired Coates, but his father, who was a part of The Black Panthers, influenced him as well. Coates’ father’s books addressed the need for a new history as well. The books were not just the history of people of color, but of the world. In these books were the earliest parts of the dream of Africans. History where they produced opera, explored algebra, created walls, pyramids, bridges, roads, and many more inventions. Coates sought to spread the word of this new history after he studied the books in the