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Analysis Of Ta-Nehisi Coates Between The World And Me

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Ta-Nehisi Coates’ widely acclaimed nonfiction 2015 novel, Between the World and Me, is arguably one of the most quintessential reads about race issues in the United States. For decades, race has always been a tense topic and still brings about upheaval as many differing opinions about the issue of race exists in society. In recent years, new debates have been ignited with recent rises of alleged abuses from the justice system against African Americans. Partially inspired by the rise of these cases and by a meeting with former President Barack Obama in 2013, Coates attempts to tackle the issue of race issues affecting African Americans within his novel. He presents his take on race related issues regarding African Americans in a heart-wrenching …show more content…

For instance, Coates talks a lot about culture within his novel. A simplified definition of culture can be defined as the customs, values, and beliefs or a group of people. In Between the World and Me, there is a lot of discussion about African American culture. Coates discusses Howard University as being his Mecca for instance. Howard University is a historically African American school and therefore not only is an academic institution, but it is also a a vibrant community made up of black people from every background. This community is what socializes Coates into the beliefs he has written about in the novel. It makes him proud to have the quirks he has for being dark-skinned. In addition, there is a lot of discussion about American culture and how the country treats African Americans. The country does not treat African Americans well, Coates is quick to point out, as he emphasizes that the nation was constructed through the exploitation and oppression of black people. In a sense, this is illustrative of ethnocentricity, as the system inherently presents white people as being superior over African Americans. The forefathers of the United States, for goodness sakes, thought that African Americans were subhuman. Not only was the book illustrative of culture and ethnocentricity though as it was also a great example of the conflict theory. Conflict theory is defined as society having tension and conflict when resources, status, and power are unevenly distributed between groups in society. Clearly, this is what had caused Ta-Nehisi Coates in writing Between the World and Me in the first place. African Americans do not have the resources, status, or power that Caucasians do and racial tensions are talked at lengths within the novel. Perhaps most importantly however, the book addresses the topic that is currently being discussed in class, race. African Americans are still a minority group in the United

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As Coates departs from Dr. Jones house he thought over the loss of his dear friend. He thinks of the protesters and how perhaps their bodies was abused because they knew that it was not theirs, to begin with. Coates informs his son that it is unlikely that the dreamers will never come to their consciousness. It is clear that racial justice and the dream does not seem to be going away anytime soon, that the black will suffer from inequality and injustice for a very long time. Despite, our society having a former black American president, the media focusing on the protest against police killings Coates sees no prospect of much change.

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1684 Words | 7 Pages

The Beautiful Struggle, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, is a memoir that heavily reflects upon the personal experiences of a young boy that was growing up in West Baltimore. The author, Coates himself, uses his own personal experiences from his life to show the hardships that he had to endure through and preserve on in order to acquire social progress despite the ample number of historical obstacles that were present in his early life. The constant struggle to progress is social standing and striving to gain his parent’s approval and acceptance is the general theme that seems to come up throughout the memoir. In regard to impending social progress, Coates had to live through environmental and social racism along with familial behavioral changes

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Even just by reading pages 5-12, I can tell that Ta-Nehisi Coates is a good writer because his essay is highly thoughtful and provocative, and the well-written narrative provides lots of powerful examples to depicts the racial struggle in the U.S. He told his son, “You must always remember that the sociology, the history, the economics, the graphs, the charts, the regression all land, with great violence, upon the body.” The concept of violence upon the body appears on every important point of my reading. This is more powerful than the examples of law enforcement and black Americans because it leads the reader to truly see the the fears provoked.

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The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates is an article issue in June 2014. The article is about discrimination, segregation, and racism toward black Americans. Two and a half centuries ago American success was built on slavery. And in present day African American are being discriminated for the color of their skin that even now the wound that black Americans face in their daily life has never been healed or fully atoned for. In this article Ta-Nehisi Coates discusses the struggle African American went through and all the hard time they face in their daily

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990 Words | 4 Pages

I think that one of the main points was that “the Age of Colorblindness”. This current time period is supposed to be post racial and the new generations much more accepting. The book proves that racism is not over, and it is just now carried out in a new way. Black men are the group that are most affected by the prison system and are more likely to be stopped by the police than any other group of

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Between the World and Me, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and dedicated to his then fifteen-year-old son, is engulfed in riveting and powerful messages. Bestselling author Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote “Between the World and Me” with hopes and intentions of providing his son and his readers with pivotal guidance and wisdom, drawn directly from his personal experiences and formed perspectives. One may accurately attest that Coates achieved his intent. The impact had by the messages relayed in this book certainly confirm that testament. However, one can also argue that the personal experiences shared by Coates were what urged his messages forward.

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Analyzing “The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates The past is the past, but sometimes the past comes back and bites us on the butt. In Ta-Nehisi Coates’s article, “The Case for Reparations”, Coates describes the wrongful acts done by white supremacists towards African-Americans. Throughout his article, Coates provides strong logos and pathos to his argument. The one issue that he fails to discuss is ethos or credibility towards his argument.

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Reparations Slavery began in America when the first African slaves brought the North American colony of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. Through 250 years of enslavement, African Americans feel like reparations, which are amends for a wrong doing, by paying money or helping those who have been wronged, should be in recognition. “The Case for Reparations” by Ta- Nehisi Coates provides the malevolent, segregated history of the Negro population in the United States. Coates explains all the political and economic issues that Negroes have faced and still endure. White America has left the Negro population at an unfair advantage socially, economically, and politically.

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Between the World and Me, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates is a powerful book written as a letter from the author to his teenage son. This book outlines the race issue in America from a first hand perspective. The author explains his struggles and fears as he grew up and how those fears transformed into a new meaning as he reached adulthood. Through his personal story, the reader is offered insight into the lives of other African Americans and how they may experience racial injustice themselves.

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In Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates we get to see the author’s struggle of obtaining freedom from society even in millennial times because of his skin color. We learn through the letter written for his son that although times have changed many people still believe in the old ideas of race and hierarchy. Coates explains the different approaches he has to parenting compared to those of his father. His father use corporal punishment on Coates to keep him out of trouble or when he disobeyed the house rules, implemented by both of his parents, however, Coates decided violence is not the answer to solving problems and educating his children. He rather teach his son how to be a successful young black male even with all the stigma that

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1381 Words | 6 Pages

The book challenges Americans and how they treat American Values. The book exposed the truth of the white race and how they treated the black race. Throughout the novel white Americans did not value equality or progress and change. In Black Like Me whites did not believe in having a society the ideally treats everyone equally. When John Howard Griffin gets a ride from a white hunter, he tells him “I’ll tell you how it is here.

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Race has always been a problem in America and other countries. But developments such as Critical Race Theory (CRT) has helped challenge race and racial power and its representation in American society. Articles such as Critical Race Theory: An Introduction by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic; White Privilege, Color, and Crime: A Personal Account by Peggy McIntosh have helped CRT develop further. Along with the documentary White Like Me by filmmaker Tim Wise. These articles and film explore the race and racism in the United States, along with critical race theory.

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Throughout the years, a buildup of understanding about violence developed in my brain, a general concept of violence in America, towards women and people of differing sexualities. At this point in my life, I feel unable to recall a specific moment or an exact moment of realization about evil in the world. However, more often than not I experience discrimination myself or I witness someone else suffering through it. Ta-Nehisi Coates' excerpt from Between the World and Me, emphasizes the importance of dealing with discrimination and educating others through a letter to his son, something that I feel passionately about and have dealt with my whole life.

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Rhetorical Analysis Author Ta-Nehisi Coates in his book Between the World and Me discusses impactful racial issues in American history and educates his son on the past and current realities of being a black American. At the beginning of the book, Coates imposes the question: “How do I live freely in this black body?” (Coates 12).

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Here is what I would like for you to know: In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body, it is heritage”. (103) That quote comes the most compelling theme in Coates letter, it how and he describes the black body and how it is always under threat racism, Coates writes “so that America might justify itself, the story of a black body's destruction must begin with his or her error, real or imagined”. Coates goes on and writes on how in black American history that black men and women have had their bodies shackled, beaten, lynched and enslaved by America. Then he compares black history to present time here in America and now witnesses the current black experience with police brutality and senseless shootings, that play out on cable news.

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