Summary Of Ta-Nehisi Coates The Beautiful Struggle

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

This altercation started when Coates became bored and disruptive in the class where it led to law enforcement being present to have more control of the situation (Coates 2008, pg. 141). Although Coates was a very bright intellectual, it is obvious to see that he was not present when in class but was very engaged with the world of books and music, outside of the classroom. Young Coates was not aware of the power of “knowledge” alone. He did not understand that without “conscious” of what is to be fought for. His mind was more focus on the lust for making his mark that he had not considered society’s view of a black male and where the origin of fear

The Blank Panther Party was an organization for the African American community that advocated for self-defense against law enforcement due to racism and injustice that the public were mistreating this particular race group, along with becoming independent from the “white government” by being self-sufficient with their needs (Foner 2017). This organization was the basis of Coates’ memoir since his father was a part of this organization along with Coates living in this community that was directly affected by these events. Malcolm X was a great activist that pushed for self-defense from the black community. Although at the time of his movement, the white community ridiculed him as racial violence, he was best known for the advocacy of providing themselves (the black community) with their own resources to the younger and urban poor areas rather that cooperating with the whites’ rules and restrictions (Foner 2017). Lastly, the Trickle Down Economics was a side-effect of the New Deal that Roosevelt has implemented. This economic program was planned to promote economic growth, but instead it brought upon more economic burden upon the lower urban social class (Foner 2017). Reagan’s plan to tax the wealthy less to improve the lives of the poor did not pan out well to