Racism In Ta-Nehesi Coates Between The World And Me

Walk in the Park To understand the author, is to take a walk in his shoes. In the reading “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehesi Coates, he explains the experiences and traumas that have psychologically impacted him. Portrayal of racism in the United States influencing how our society function; institutional, systematic, explicit and implicit racism.

Feeling the fear, the author experienced when walking to school. Understanding why his parents did everything they could to keep him safe in a hostile world. Losing a friend to violence in the streets, or by the police are all very traumatizing events. Personally, I can attest and it is a sad feeling that can never be forgotten. Coates’s description of his friend Prince who was killed during

Instead the police often challenge black people for walking or driving. This leaves the communities frightened of police rather than feeling supported. In society today, the fear and violence in which the author lived when growing up in Baltimore still continue on. The growing media coverage of police brutality and racial injustice in the United States can be described as “An Event”. Because of all these issues taking place, many in society are becoming psychologically impacted never forgetting the events they have experienced. For example, current state-citizen tensions surrounding police killings of unarmed black youth and the failure to hold officers responsible for unlawful actions has roots in centuries of sanctioned violence against black bodies. Coates stated, “In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body—it is heritage” (Coates, 103). His searing recitation of Prince Jones’s death supports the claim. In Baltimore, Ferguson, and across the US, white police officers consistently are implicated and often exonerated in cases of racial violence against young blacks. The unaccountable officer who shot Jones was black. Whites are not the only representatives of white supremacy. It is sociopolitical structures that preserve the tradition of

But also, minorities experience implicit racism as well. Implicit racism is when negative thoughts and feelings are connected to minority groups. For example, another black man can become anxious when confronted by an unknown black man. (Chapter on….)So when a black police officer pulled over Coates’s friend and eventually killed him, a history of racism contributed to that event. Coates saw the system and not the individual as responsible. Ta-Nehesi Coates ability to make the reader feel these events and emotions makes a psychological impact on many as it did the author himself. Living through the words of the author and feeling the experience. All these events make the reader question, what kind of country is America that it can make a reasonable person like me live in perpetual fear for my life, and for a better future alongside the thought whether that future can be obtained. Between the author and reader’s self-examination and critical interrogation of the world, concerns with questions as much as the answers do as