Brutality Exposed In Coates Between The World And Me

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“Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates was a powerful essay formatted in a letter to his son about living in the world as a person with colored skin. The most powerful messaged I personally encountered in Coats’ letter to his son, is his expressed fear on behalf of his child for the way in which America and the world treats people of color. Coates’ essay was nearly a letter of warning with political and social references weaved throughout referring to the state of race relations in America, and why it is so closely related to the safety and health of his son. Throughout the essay, Coates used the ominous theme of inequality and brutality, both historical and contemporary, to convey his unrest with the way his son must lead his life. Coates went at length throughout the letter describing the horrifying things that happen to young black boys and men in America, and the constant threat his own son faces simply for being alive. In the letter, Coates discussed the untimely murder of a well-to-do African American man whose death mirrored that of so many other brutal police killings in the past. Coates’ emotions of anger and resent towards this murder truly mirrors my own perspective on police brutality in this country. …show more content…

When Ta-Nehisi Coates spoke about the murder of his friend, Prince Jones, I felt the same pain and frustration he expressed in his essay. Though none have been acquaintances of mine, I too have mourned the deaths of Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, and many others over the years. I realize increasingly that these deaths at the hands of police officers are not only mourned by those closest to them, but the black community as a

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