Between The World And Me: Racism In America

Racism in America has always been present. The foundation of America is based on the exploitation of black bodies. There was first slavery where black people weren’t seen as human beings but as goods meant to be exchanged and used for labor. Then, there were the Jim Crow laws where laws were instilled in order to separate black and white Americans. The letter “Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates shows that black bodies in America are as much in danger now than it was centuries before. This is shown through Ta-Nehisi’s experience in Baltimore, the destruction of black bodies by law enforcement and the ignorance of “white” people.

First of all, Coates shows that black bodies in America are as much in danger now than it was centuries

The author uses an understatement as he says,”’Good intention’ is a hall pass through history, a sleeping pill that ensures the Dream” (Coates 33). Through the use of an understatement, the author shows that white people don’t understand the impact of their actions. They think that they didn’t mean no harm but what exactly is used to alleviate the conscience of these people because their “kind” did horrible things to them and for them, the American dream still upholds as if a black person has the same opportunities to succeed in life as a white person. Also, through the anecdote of his visit to Shirley Plantation, he says,” as though the fall of the Confederacy were the onset of a tragedy, not jubilee” (Coates, 99). This shows how white American has a certain misconception of the past as they don’t see the horror of the past but instead they illusion themselves with this “good old times”. Black people, on the other hand, can see clearly the past in which they were slaves and then segregated but white people still believe in the “Dream”, they can’t see the reality and therefore this translates to the danger of black people because they can’t feel or see what they are going through and the danger they face every