The Black Body In Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between The World And Me

Improved Essays
Through out American history black bodies were subjected to negativity, Ta-Nehisi Coates states his beliefs and the conditions of the black body in the New York Times bestseller Between the World and Me. Coates writes about the racist and violent acts that African Americans endured in America. Present day, people do not feel that racism exist, but the tales of murdered black bodies suggest otherwise. Black bodies are being destroyed and their destroyers are being left unpunished. Coates directed the book towards his 15-year-old son, who is now aware of the situations he will/can face as a black male. Coates’ questions how freely a person can live in a black body, but to live in a black body the question is unanswerable. There is no real answer …show more content…
Prince graduated from Howard University and the system still took him. Prince did not grow up struggling; his mother was a doctor and did everything she could to direct him to a positive path. No matter what Prince’s mother did she could not stop the system from killing her son in the jeep she purchased for his safe travels. Prince’s story is no different from other stories that mainstream by Black Lives Matter. Coates grew up with the fears of his body and now his fears are greater for his son. Coates mentions a time when a white woman pushed his son and when he confronted her, a white man stepped in to rescue her. No one besides Coates though to defended the little black body; young or old does not compare to whiteness. During the altercation the white nab tell Coates that he could have him arrested, as if Coates’ black body is under his control. From this encounter Coates remembers the rules of the streets. “Not being violent enough could cost me my body. Being too violent could cost me my body. We could not get out.” No matter the situation black people would always lose, he could not truly protect his son without the risk of harm towards his body. Coates knows that the white woman would not have pushed his son if she were in his neighborhood. He brings up the unity in the black community against outside factor, black people should never turn over their bodies willingly nor their friends body. The situation would have been totally different if Coates had not been in a white

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    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).…

    • 528 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What Is Coates'summoned '

    • 104 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Coates opens by reviewing an occasion in which he is "summoned" to teach the universe of white individuals about his perspectives on bigotry and American history. Nonetheless, this is made troublesome by the way that there is such a colossal bay between the universe of dark individuals (counting Coates himself) and the group of onlookers he is made a request to address. He brings up that confirmation of this bay lies in the way that he is being made a request to clarify his perspectives, when in his mind all the important proof as of now exists in the white mythologization of American…

    • 104 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Reading Between the world and me by Ta-Nehisi Coates was a great experience. Coates writes his fifteen-year-old son a letter discussing his “struggles with being Black in America”, and he offers his son truth about the shackles of the streets and school, an apology for his fear and for his “learned hardness”, and a way out of being unshackled from his “history”, his “assigned Blackness”. Coates shares the harsh truth about growing up in Baltimore. Coates explains that the shackles of the streets were a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation”. It was either looking down the barrel of a gun held by a young boy or getting beat by his father for letting another boy steal from him “Not being violent enough could cost me my body.…

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In June 2015, The Atlantic published an article with, acclaimed author, journalist, and social/political activist, Ta-Nehisi Coates that addresses Black men about the social injustices in America and how opportunities differ based upon race in a segment called “Letter To Son”. Coates develops a feeling of sympathy throughout his article about Black men and women in America and how much they have suffered. Coates also makes it a point to show that the foundation of America has a great deal to do with the abuse of the mind, body, and spirit of Black people. Coates adopts a firm and passionate tone to address the social injustices that setbacks Black men in America. Coates uses pathos and anaphora to illustrate the survival of a Black person in America whose past in based on slavery and murder.…

    • 606 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Or even in society today, Coates must not realize there are white females who marry black men and white men who marry black females. He doesn’t see the good in a white man who stops to help a homeless black man who calls a bridge his home. He must not recognize that black men and women are leaders and have people who follow and support them. Coates doesn’t see the black basketball coach who is respected by twelve teenage white girls. If he does, he has failed to persuade myself, as a reader, that white people are more than a stereotype.…

    • 1053 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He is coming to a lot of realization of the world in his book and really questions the America society as a whole. “The problem with the police is not that they are fascist pigs but that our country is ruled by majoritarian pigs,” (page 79) He sees that in America’s democratic republic, it is the people that hold the power so everything that happens is the direct effect of the people. He sees that the majority (white Americans) are the ones in control and it is because of them that society is the way it is today. Coates is writing this book to his son, so it doesn’t have a very harsh tone like Williams, since it is for his son to be more aware of his circumstances as a black boy in…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    To protect himself he had to defend his own body every day, even something simple as crossing the street could take your body. Coates preaches about the body of colored people, He mentions a young man he went to college with names prince jones. Prince Jones was allegedly killed by a Prince County police offer who says that prince jones tried to run him over with a car. He speaks about how racial profiling and being a different color can get you into trouble in this world, idefinying the wrong person that’s how prince jones had died. The PG police offer was sent out to get a man who was five foot four while prince was six foot.…

    • 1407 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Coates addresses the stereotype of the thug and how society responds to those who fit the stereotype. Black boys cannot be true to themselves around white people in most cases. Black boys have to make sure their appearance is validated by white people in order to be considered safe. Coates gives much needed insight as far the struggles black males go…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ta-Nehisi Coates ' an African American creator utilizes a dreary tone to address the difficulties impinging on the lives of American dark particularly prejudice, isolation, and homicide. Coates presents the book to his fourteen-year-old son in a type of a letter. Coates communicates his sentiment on reality about history and race taking after a progression of encounters to his child and the ones reading. As a young African-American male student, this book related to me in every way imaginable. Granted, some of these hardships are unfamiliar with me, I still feel a sense to tension and sadness as I read about my people.…

    • 1326 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Between the World and Me Book Review Ta-Nehisi Coates, an African-American writer and national correspondent for The Atlantic, published his book Between the World and Me in 2015. Ta-Nehisi Coates demonstrates a letter writing format and introduce the thesis of this book with an interview. By using his unique writing style, outstanding using of languages, and narrative form, Coates emphasizes a currently serious issue in American, which is the gap between whites and blacks. Ta-Nehisi Coates adopts a letter writing format in the book Between the World and Me to denote the awareness or racism issue. Coates begins his writing with one word “Son”, which indicates the primary audience is his son, Samori. However, Coates intends to notify…

    • 895 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It’s Extremely important for the reader to understand that when Coates talks about an individual who is ”white” that he isn’t making reference to someone with blonde hair and blue eyes. When Coates uses the term “white he uses it in the same hope that it would be interpreted the same way it was interpreted when he used the term “being black”. Coates excepted that the reader to associate feeling superior, and entitled with the term “white” just like prior in the memoir when Coates excepted the reader to associate “being black” in a negative…

    • 1178 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    He fears for his African-American son or any African-American male that will have to grow up in America the way it is today. Coates’s experiences and sense of urgency for his son’s safety and well being allows the reader to see the severity of Black History then and the urgency that is needed now. He discusses how African-American…

    • 1336 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Before one can even be able to mention that Coates’ experience in his memoir related to the black experience in any way, one would need to know what the black experience is. Chapter 4 of the book “What’s Black About It?” , explains that the black experience can vary from person to person depending on age, education level, and even lifestyle. As a person of color, the individual is already forced to have a different experience than that of someone of Caucasian descent. The black experience is filled with components such as enduring racial stereotypes, being the victim of injustices based on skin color, and the…

    • 705 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Well known essayist and writer, Ta-Nehisi Coates, wrote an essay, “The Case for Reparations,” that was published in The Atlantic, in 2014, in which the essay describes the hardships the black race has gone through and is still are going through. Coates’ purpose is to inform his readers of the struggle the black race has gone through each day and show why there is a need for reparations. He creates a compassionate tone to lead his readers to fully understand what it is like to grow up black in America. In “The Case for Reparation’s,” Coates uses a mixture of tone, diction, and historical imagery to create the readers to want to know and understand the struggle of being a black American.…

    • 1507 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    That any black man’s body can be destroyed at any time, anywhere. It is a devastating realization and one that is echoed in his son Samori’s shock and tearful realization that he could also be Michael Brown. Coats trys to communicate his worries as a father to his son his. Coates intimate awareness of both of their fragility makes him afraid for his son. Coates understands and knows that his son may grow up privileged, educated, and behave himself in a respectable manner, but still fall prey to the racial injustice that surrounds American society.…

    • 1245 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays