In the novel “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, the story is a direct letter to his son. This letter contains the tools and instructions that his son will need in order to be a successful “black body” in the modern society. Coates explains his life experiences and hardships he had to overcome because of the color of his skin. Coates pushes an urgent message to the world; discrimination is still prevalent and real in today 's society, and the world is still struggling to accept an equal life for blacks. Coates writings alter the minds of his readers and allow them to experience life through a black man 's eyes. Ta-Nehisi Coates does this by the use of rhetorical strategies like, repetition and tone, metaphors and similes, and …show more content…
Coates uses this strategy in the quote “it does not matter if the destruction if the result of an unfortunate overreaction. It does not matter if it originates in a misunderstanding. It does not matter if the destruction springs from a foolish policy.”. Repeating “it does not matter” makes the sentence stand out. It infers that the message is very important because it is being constantly repeated. This is a very convincing and eye catching statement because of the repetition and short “to the point” sentences. The repetition of “it does not matter” and the short sentences work together to create an urgent and demanding tone. The author also uses other strategies to enhance his ideas and push his audience into a certain direction of thought while reading the …show more content…
These details help many who may have trouble understanding his hardships, be able to relate. The use of real world examples from his life and history are very convincing and supportive of his theory on blacks lives. Coates talks about how “black blood was spilled in the North colonies, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War [...] and most of all during segregation and the time of JIm Crow Laws. [...] Why is it still being spilt today over the same reasons?” Coates use of history relates to the issues today. It represents how serious the problems were back then, and how serious they still are in the modern society. History is factual, this creates and accurate support to his claim and also allows reader to relate to the past and compare it to today 's society. The rhetorical question causes the audience to think and catches eye. Asking this question emphasizes the issue because it still is a problem that does not have a solution even still today. The author also uses statistics to support the unfair lives of black people. “60 percent of all young black people who drop out of high school will go to jail.” This claim is factual and convincing to his claim about the rigged schooling system in many black communities. The communities are shoved in corner and neglected. This problem results in the thousands of dropouts that later result in jailing. If our schooling systems were
In this passage from the novel Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates utilizes meaningful, vivid imagery to not only stress the chasm between two dissonant American realities, but to also bolster his clarion for the American people to abolish the slavery of institutional or personal bias against any background. For example, Coates introduces his audience to the idea that the United States is a galaxy, and that the extremes of the "black" and "white" lifestyles in this galaxy are so severe that they can only know of each other through dispatch (Coates 20-21). Although Coates's language is straightforward, it nevertheless challenges his audience to reconsider a status quo that has maintained social division in an unwitting yet ignorant fashion.
He believes that because of what past generations have endured and the lack of freedom that was given to blacks, they were not provided the same rights and were looked at as inferior human beings. Social matters, such as mass incarceration of blacks and the idea that black people are criminals, stem from the disparity between races as explained by Coates who emphasizes, “blacks who could not find work were labeled vagrants and sent to jail, where they were leased as labor to the very people who had once enslaved them” (Coates). The situation did not change even when they were freed from enslavement as blacks were not able to live the same as the white people. This reinforced blacks being inferior as they were not given the same opportunities as white people had. To this day, many black men looking for jobs struggle with the same disadvantages that existed years ago. They are targeted by the criminal justice system, and once they have a criminal history, it is hard for them to find jobs. Unfortunately, even with a clean record it is still difficult for black men to find jobs since, “the job market in America regards black men who have never been criminals as though they were” (Coates). Coates draws parallels between incarceration and slavery, but also provides explanation as to why minorities find themselves with certain unequal and employment
Ta-Nehisi Coates’ novel Between the World and Me is the descendant of Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time. It is the next in the series of great novels that reflect on the narratives of black people in America. He explores the idea of the black body and how it is in danger. But, the most powerful message that Coates gives to the coming of age black youth is that despite knowing that danger, we must live life without fear.
In Between the World and Me, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates, the author writes with passion to his son about the many different stages of his life intended directly to depict the life of a black person and in how racism, prejudice, and slavery has caused a black life to be unequal to a white one. In his writing Coates states
Racism is not only a crime against humanity, but a daily burden that weighs down many shoulders. Racism has haunted America ever since the founding of the United States, and has eerily followed us to this very day. As an intimidating looking black man living in a country composed of mostly white people, Brent Staples is a classic victim of prejudice. The typical effect of racism on an African American man such as Staples, is a growing feeling of alienation and inferiority; the typical effect of racism on a white person is fear and a feeling of superiority. While Brent Staples could be seen as a victim of prejudice because of the discrimination he suffers, he claims that the victim and the perpetrator are both harmed in the vicious cycle that is racism. Staples employs his reader to recognize the value of his thesis through his stylistic use of anecdotes, repetition and the contrast of his characterization.
Throughout the years, the black community has been looked down upon as a community of criminals and a community of lesser educated and poor who have a lesser purpose in life. Journalist Brent Staples, the author of Black Men And Public Spaces, takes us into his own thoughts as a young black man growing up in Chester, Pennsylvania to becoming a journalist in New York City. He tells us his own challenges that he faces on a daily basis along with challenges that many black men his own age faced and the way he changed in order to minimize the tension between himself and the common white person. Growing up in the post-segregation era was a challenge for most blacks. Having the same rights and privileges as many white Americans, but still fighting for the sense of equality, was a brick wall that many blacks had to overcome.
Coates’ implied message in the book is mainly about the struggle that black people suffer in America. The examples given to his son might be seen too explicit and helpless for his son. In the beginning of Between the World and Me, Coates’ witnessed his son crying over the injustice served in the Michael Brown’s case. Assuming that his son already has an idea of how difficult it is to be black in America, Coates decides to ineffectively consolidate his son by deeply explain him how unfair the world is going to be when the tone of your skin is darker than the rest. Coates writes in this letter to his son an event that shows the unfortunate case of a young black man killed by the police. “Prince had been driving to see his fiancée. He was killed yards from her home. The only witness to the killing of Prince Jones was the killer himself. The officer claimed that Prince had tried to run him over with his jeep, and I knew that the prosecutors would believe him.” (77). Later in this excerpt, Coates mentions that Prince Jones was killed by mistake, meaning that Prince Jones looks just like the wanted suspected at the time by the Prince George County Police Department. Given this illustration, Coates disempowers his son by telling him in other words that just by being black the worst should be expected, and society will be unfair to
Even today, African American authors write about the prejudice that still happens, like Ta-Nehisi Coates. In his essay Acting French, Coates recalls when he studied the French language at Middlebury College. Despite all his efforts to integrate with his fellow students into French culture, yet another barrier reveals itself. “And so a white family born into the lower middle class can expect to live around a critical mass of people who are more affluent or worldly and thus see other things, be exposed to other practices and other cultures. A black family with a middle class salary can expect to live around a critical mass of poor people, and mostly see the same things they (and the poor people around them) are working hard to escape. This too compounds.” Because of the lack of black people available to look up to in scholastics, it makes it hard for black students to find the motivation to pursue interests in English or other
He states that Black life still does not seem to matter in America to the point that at time it feels as if the mere existence of Blacks is ignored. He claims that blacks are still readily denied decent education, employment, and opportunities available to their white counterparts and they are harassed, criminalized, incarcerated, animalized and killed due to the color of their skin. There have been several recent incidents strengthening the fact that even in the year 2015, America is still plagued by the evil of racism, presumed racial superiority and
In her work, “This is Our World,” Dorothy Allison shares her perspective of how she views the world as we know it. She has a very vivid past with searing memories of her childhood. She lives her life – her reality – because of the past, despite how much she wishes it never happened. She finds little restitution in her writings, but she continues with them to “provoke more questions” (Allison 158) and makes the readers “think about what [they] rarely want to think about at all” (158).
In the article, “A Letter My Son,” Ta-Nehisi Coates utilizes both ethical and pathetic appeal to address his audience in a personable manner. The purpose of this article is to enlighten the audience, and in particular his son, on what it looks like, feels like, and means to be encompassed in his black body through a series of personal anecdotes and self-reflection on what it means to be black. In comparison, Coates goes a step further and analyzes how a black body moves and is perceived in a world that is centered on whiteness. This is established in the first half of the text when the author states that,“white America’s progress, or rather the progress of those Americans who believe that they are white, was built on looting and violence,”
Brent Staples focuses on his own experiences, which center around his perspective of racism and inequality. This perspective uniquely encapsulates the life of a black man with an outer image that directly affects how others perceive him as a person. Many readers, including myself, have never experienced the fear that Staples encounters so frequently. The severity of his experiences was highlighted for me when he wrote, “It also made it clear that I was indistinguishable from the muggers who occasionally seeped into the area from the surrounding ghetto.” (135) Having to accept that fact as a reality is something that many people will never understand. It is monumentally important that Staples was able to share this perspective of the world so others could begin to comprehend society from a viewpoint different from their
The novel covered so much that high school history textbooks never went into why America has never fully recovered from slavery and why systems of oppression still exists. After reading this novel, I understand why African Americans are still racially profiled and face prejudice that does not compare to any race living in America. The novel left a mixture of frustration and anger because it is difficult to comprehend how heartless people can be. This book has increased my interests in politics as well and increased my interest to care about what will affect my generation around the world. Even today, inmates in Texas prisons are still forced to work without compensation because peonage is only illegal for convicts. Blackmon successfully emerged the audience in the book by sharing what the book will be like in the introduction. It was a strange method since most would have expected for this novel to be a narrative, but nevertheless, the topic of post Civil War slavery has never been discussed before. The false façade of America being the land of the free and not confronting their errors is what leads to the American people to question their integrity of their own
Coates argues that the ignorance of the plight of African Americans is systematic and intentional. The racism is too obvious, the problems too egregious, for this to be coincidence. Coates states this issue in the following way:
Coates is tells his son about achieving The American Dream, the difficulties he seen and experienced due to racism, and unfair/injustice ways. His book shows how racism makes The American Dream difficult to achieve, how the environment we live in affects us and how the roots of black people has an impact on our lives today.