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Analysis Of Between The World And Me By Ta-Nehisi Coates

Decent Essays

In Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ writes a powerful novel that details the struggles that black people face in America, especially in contrast to those faced by white Americans. One of the main messages (as well as the most powerful) that is detailed in the book is the idea of black bodies and how they are perceived and treated in America. This was not only just in the physical sense, but also how they are treated in everyone’s minds. He describes how throughout the creation of America, black bodies were used and abused to create agricultural and textile empires that enriched countless white settlers (and later, American citizens). They were not valued as humans, only seen as bodies that will produce a profit.
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With being white myself, I personally was never disposed to this type of mental or physical abuse, but I was able to see it occurring with my two adopted siblings. For example, when my brother was thirteen, he dressed up with his friends (who were mostly all white) to trick-or-treat, and when he returned, his costume caused my mother to become extremely upset with him. He wore all black and had a painted toy gun in his hand. Although he and his friends were wearing almost the same costumes, he and our mother was unfortunately forced to talk with him about how he needed to be more careful with what he does and wears, even if it’s just in innocent fun. Hearing this made me realize just how tragic it is that a child has to worry about his life because of what he is wearing or any toys that he might be carrying. This lead to my second takeaway from the book, when he talks about how everyone makes mistakes in life, but the cost is significantly higher for black people in America. It is statistically proven that for every person that is stopped for possession of marijuana, black people are given more sentences and are forced to face the “mandatory minimums.” Or, even just by my brother wearing what he did, it could have cost him his life. Lastly, what also carried a great impact was how Coates discussed the host referring to hope at the beginning of the book. As Americans, especially white Americans, we like to think that although the situation seems grim, it must be ok because they are becoming slightly better than they were before. Even though it is great that we have seen change, it hasn’t changed enough, and instead of having hope, we need to have the determination to change them drastically

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