Summary Of Between The World And Me

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

Young black males and females were becoming prisoners not only to the jails, but also to the streets that were taking over. More and more black males would join gangs and would get killed because of their criminal ties. Young females were getting pregnant by drug dealers and dropping out of school. The education system was lacking because it didn’t help people from the street to be more educated it rather wanted already educated people, whites, to continue with hierarchy ideal. Coates, argues that his father hitted him as if someone would take him away. Coates explains, “My father was so very afraid. I felt it in the sting of his black leather belt, which he applied with more anxiety than anger, my father who beat me as if someone might steal me away, because that is exactly what was happening all around us. Everyone had lost a child, somehow, to the streets, to jail, to drugs, to guns” (15-16). Coates claims that his father was afraid the streets would take control over him just like it was happening in other families. This quote differs from the last one I mentioned in paragraph two because we see the parents’ side and we realized that their fear is valid. Drugs, jail, guns, teen pregnancies, gangs,

Walking to school was a thing that seemed to never end because you had to know when to say hi, whom to smile, how to walk, etc. All of this just to keep yourself safe from getting beaten by others. Coates claims that no survives the streets unharmed. Coates explains, “The streets transform every ordinary day into a series of trick questions, and every incorrect answer risks a beat-down, a shooting, or a pregnancy. No one survives unscathed. When I was your age, fully one-third of my brain was concerned with whom I was walking to school with, our precise number, the manner of our walk, the number of times I smiled, whom or what I smiled at, who offered a pound and who did not—all of which is to say that I practiced the culture of the streets, a culture concerned chiefly with securing the body” (22). Coates argues that the streets change your life for the bad even if your are not involved in any malicious activity. If one doesn’t know how to walk through the streets you could get killed, beaten or end up pregnant. Here we understand what his father is talking about the streets being a dangerous place for everyone. He wants to protect Coates from this streets by inflicting violence on him however, he is already exposed to those street and if he wanted to join them he easily could. Here we go back to the topic of having trust and communication