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Comparing The Dream: Oppression And Generalization Of African-American Society

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I believe that the Dream stands for the not so obvious oppression and generalization of African- American society that has been established not only by whites, but also themselves. Coates felt that the Dream caused white supremacy and it is too deeply entrenched to be seen at most times. This book's whole intention is to make the deep problems be seen so we can work together to solve racism in America. The Dream is also seen as Howard university as that is where African Americans ca go to find acceptance amongst their own people. They can get away from the feeling of white supremacy there which is what makes it so important and powerful to be able to go there in order to accomplish their version of the dream. 2. Coates is talking about how the black body is only valued in money and not in their life or culture. Their body was being used for gains for everyone, but themselves. I believe this involves physical, mental and spiritual abilities as physical is represented by the loss of life and the work they were forced to do while mental and spiritual involves the suppression of their culture. Malcolm X wants to fight back against this by saying things like “Don’t give up your life, preserve your life”(35). He is telling them …show more content…

Coates talks about why their is so much crime in these ghettos which many would think is their own doing until you hear the backstory behind that. This also helps to put some context into police brutality against African-Americans. Another example of this is when he visits a Civil war memorial and is shocked that the people around him were focused on things like battle formations and tactics than the reasons they were there in the first place. This is also a connection to the very beginning of the problem which is people ignoring what happened in the past and the problems it is still causing in the

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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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He talks about how those who believe they are white are essentially doing the “theft” from the bodies of the black. By using example from the American history and some recent disputes between the police and the black, he seems to express hope, but then he realized there’s real hope. The law enforcement and black Americans are seen by Coates as mistrust, sadness, and hopelessness because he knows it’s not all right but he has t

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Coates leaves little space to talk about slavery but instead talks about black reparations. He doesn’t really demonstrate this throughout the essay. He gives us a long list of slavery victims and their stories, but no overall

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Coates often applied information from historians to prove his point. Coates use the speech of the senator “The two great divisions of Society are not rich and poor, but white and black.” (Coates 18). The African American doesn’t have freedom and rights in America. This show that in America race is more important than the economic status of a person.

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“Coates goes for that audience’s throat. He wants them to feel the strangulation of struggle, to rob them of breath for one heartbeat longer than is comfortable.” (Two texts) Coates' rhetoric is overpowering. He evokes an emotional reaction from his readers by forcing them to look through his eyes and see the injustices against black people as a victim and not a third party observer.

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Coates states “What i told you is what your grandparents tried to tell me: that this is your country, that this is your world, that this is your body, and you must find some way to live within all of it” He uses parallelism when he utters “that this is your country, that this is your world, that this is your body” and is showing his son that some of the situations going on now, were going on then. He is articulating that everything is yours and you have to figure out how to live with it. “When I was your age the only people I knew were black, and all of them were powerfully, adamantly, dangerously afraid.” He uses asyndetons, when he states “powerfully, adamantly, dangerously” to characterize the fate of fear in blacks when he was growing up.

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It discusses the result of black people trying to better themselves in this time saying, “African-Americans did not like the way of life and wanted to do things to fix it, but usually when they tried they suffered severe consequences. Even some Caucasians were murdered by their own people trying to help the African-Americans gain equality and respect” (Classroom help ph4). When a black person at this time attempted to better themselves they almost always harassed and worst case scenario killed. Now sometimes there were white people who would attempt to help blacks but many of there were murdered or to scared to help do to the possible

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Many people forget that African Americans in this country have been enslaved for longer than they have been free. Coates reminds his son to not forget their important history and that they will continuously struggle for freedom over their own bodies. They must learn to live within a black body. These struggles can be seen in the racial profiling and brutality among police officers in cases such as Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, and countless of others. He goes on to describe his childhood and how fear was the root of black existence.

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The violence that is placed on the black people, whether it referred to the beatings that took place in the 1700 and 1800s, or the police brutality today, are the perfect symbol of inequality. The poor treatment of the Black Body destroys the conception of the American Dream. Violence is has constantly been a part of a black person’s life, but often the black man seems to be the most nonviolent: “Why were only heroes nonviolent? … morality of nonviolence, but of the sense that blacks are in especial need of this morality” (Coates 32). One of the biggest ironies presented is the peaceful front that many black people show in the face of the unfair world.

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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.

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Coates points out that since the beginning of time in America, black people have constantly had to fight over the right of our bodies. Black women and men throughout American history have been enslaved, beaten, tortured, captured against their will, lynched, sprayed with fire hoses, and raped. The most tragic part about this is that even now, in 2018, nothing has changed much; we still experience police brutality, senseless shootings, and undercover

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Ta-Nehisi Coates explains racism as being the need to assign bone-deep features to people, particularly those of color, and then humiliate, diminish, and destroy them (Coates 7). Coates expresses here how degrading racism can be to those who are not considered white. Coates also states what racism means to African Americans, which he further discusses later on in his novel. Coates continues in his novel to talk about race. He states that race is the actually the child of racism, not the father (Coates 7).

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Coates’ uses the identity of being a white person, by also cementing that whiteness is not a race, it is simply a belief that was created as a way to exert dominance and power over “inferior” races. One of the most classic examples of furthering this behavior is simply the dream. This is one of the dreams consequences, as it exuberates the idea of being white. As the dream topples, “white” people lose their so-called identities and are forced to coincide with reality as it really is. Of course, the dream is only part of the problem.

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Although he believes that this question is unanswerable, Coates’ purpose is to express his deepest concerns for his son and to help him understand his personal experiences as a black man. He achieves his purpose by incorporating rhetorical skills such as ethos, pathos, and logos. Coates has been a successful journalist and writer for several years. He previously worked for The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and O

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A big part of our history is the challenges different races had to face when fighting for their rights. There are groups in today’s society that are still battling oppression, even though they were granted rights by our government. It seems like when one door opens, another closes right in their face. One race that had to deal with oppression, and is still dealing with it today, is African Americans. Africans Americans were brought over to the United States to be slaves for Caucasian people.

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