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The theme Coates emphasis is the destruction of the black body. That the body is chocked, shot, and degraded by the white male. With the controversy surrounding these events, it made me question the author’s true authority. He only talks about males and white’s racism towards blacks. He does not ever talk about different genders or races; nor, does he evaluate racism in both directions, blacks towards whites and vice versa. I had an audio recording of the author reading this book from the library and it was much different hearing him read it; as compared to me, a white privilege girl reading aloud his words. He emphasized words and topics that I would not have; but it was in those words he chose to use and the way he said them that made me really question is authority. I questioned if this was a hate book, or propaganda, or just him venting about the world he grew up in. I thought it was a letter to his son, but it was more than that; I do not know, maybe he never meant it to be more than that, but it is now. His words are in a book for all of us to read; no matter your gender, race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic background, you can read this and interpret it in many different ways. The author seems to write the letter to his son as a warning. That since he is black, he will have to work harder and will have to carry himself in a specific demeanor in order to survive in white privileged …show more content…
I have a family member that is counting his days to an early retirement because of the recent controversies. People are not looking to the police as an authority figure that is here to serve and protect; rather, they are shooting their car up on the east side of Indianapolis and doing other thing around the country. It makes me wonder if the media and social media is too involved in these issues; is their actions doing more harm than good. Which is what I ask of this author and his book, are you doing more harm than
It gives the reader a feeling of sympathy for the African American male, while also educating them on how to handle a situation if they are put in one similar to any of these scenarios. The reader is also able to comprehend that he knows why white people fear him and that he does not think it is an irrational fear. Although this essay is a little biased, it gives the reader a view from both sides of the fence. Staples essay was one that every white male and female should read. Maybe then, the readers would not be so scared of African American
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
The readings were insightful and had interesting approaches to Negro mood. They had many emotional elements that were for the readers understanding of the different situations Negroes faced. When looking at the writings collectively they create a timeline. The timeline shows the various changes the Negroes mindset has gone through. The reader is exposed to three types of Negroes; one, the compliant Negro who knows his place, two, the Negro with will take his revenge and three, Negro who is conflicted between his desires and his responsibilities to his people.
I think the first major aspect you get is idea of the riot. He goes into great length talking about various riots that happened all throughout the nation. However, from reading it they all seemed to go down the same line. The riots are not like we typically think of but they are for the same reason. In the books, perspective the killing of a black mostly started these riots. Black people would then retaliate by rioting. This theme was recurrent. Usually the papers or word of mouth instigated the riot. Reason for this being an interesting aspect is the perception of the riots. When whites rioted, it was to protect dignity and to do the right thing. They had a so-called legit moral purpose for their actions. As Tuttle states blacks rioting were often seen as ruthless and they are depicted as animals and should be dealt with. This difference in depiction was interesting to me. I guess it would lie in the mindset of the people of those prevailing times.
Reflecting back on the piece that I have just read, I can only think of the extremity of desperation that the two authors were going through to make them feel the way that they did: that suicide would possibly be better than living in a "white man's world". If these powerful documents were not enough to let people come to the realization of how bad African-Americans had it (and still do to a degree) then I do not know what could possibly be more convincing. I cannot stop thinking about the atrocities that the woman in the first writing was calling upon to spite the whites in which had caused her so much pain. Though seemingly extreme, I can clearly recall an instance in history where tactics such as these denouncements and curses actually worked. In Egypt, Mosses did the same thing in order to lead his people (the Jewish slaves) out of bondage so that they could find their own land in which to dwell freely. The curses, though wishing pain and suffering upon their offenders, were not unlike the ten plagues that Moses called upon the Egyptians, the last of the ten being the death of the youngest son of all the families. It was then that the Jewish people were given the permission to leave Egypt in search of a new life. These documents remind me much of that because, like the Jews, these blacks are searching for their freedom in a white world in which it does not exist. They feel as if their last resort and the one that will finally bring about results in these denouncements and prayers to God.
The genre of this article is an editorial. When the audience reads an editorial, they know there is going to be strong opinions and most likely some bias. With the genre of an editorial, though, readers are going to observe phrases and opinions authors would not use in other genres. An example of this is where The Editorial Board says “They are not asserting that black lives are more precious than white lives. They are underlining an indisputable fact — that the lives of black citizens in this country historically have not mattered, and have been discounted and devalued.” (Editorial Board, screen 4) Throughout the article, The Editorial Board included ethos, logos, and pathos in various ways. The Editorial Board represents itself very well and seems to have impeccable credentials and authority. The Editorial Board seems very trustworthy because of the members’ credentials and how publicized The Editorial Board’s editorials are. In the article, facts and evidence are found periodically, meaning that the article is factual to an extent. The Editorial Board presents more facts and evidence that are in support of African Americans than Caucasians, meaning that there is some bias in this article. There are some direct observations included in the logos also. The Editorial Board attempts to invoke an emotional response by saying “The movement sought a cross-racial appeal, but at every step of the way used
Ta’ nehisi Coates wrote a letter to his son and one of the statements he made said, “I remember being amazed that death could so easily rise up from the nothing of a boyish afternoon, billow up like a fog.” The interpretation, “It is amazing how quickly death can overtake an African American male at any moment.” Eric Garner, a witness to this statement, and now a part of the Black Lives Matter movement. Black people are slowly divided by what really matters more injustice itself or injustice of a race that cannot and never existed. Have we become so blind that we forgot the many Sandra Blands that risked it all building the African American race? They then begin to categorize this as Black Women Matter. A parallel statement that not only applies to injustice but to black people themselves. Black men bash the bodies that birthed them and give them to the system to finish the job they have already started. If black women cannot be respected by their own what makes you think the next white man or cop will give them that
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,”
For as long as I can remember, racial injustice has been the topic of discussion amongst the American nation. A nation commercializing itself as being free and having equality for all, however, one questions how this is true when every other day on the news we hear about the injustices and discriminations of one race over another. Eula Biss published an essay called “White Debt” which unveils her thoughts on discrimination and what she believes white Americans owe, the debt they owe, to a dark past that essentially provided what is out there today. Ta-Nehisi Coates published “Between the World and Me,” offering his perspective about “the Dream” that Americans want, the fear that he faced being black growing up and that black bodies are what
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
In the novel, the author proposes that the African American female slave’s need to overcome three obstacles was what unavoidably separated her from the rest of society; she was black, female, and a slave, in a white male dominating society. The novel “locates black women at the intersection of racial and sexual ideologies and politics (12).” White begins by illustrating the Europeans’ two major stereotypes o...
He hopes to prepare his son for his encounter on a steeper society, in which a black men getting killed on news is regular nowadays. Between the World and Me writer Ta-Nehisi Coates article of being black in America and America’s unwillingness to explore the origin of racial conflict. Even though he chose the book more than the streets, Coates still felt the fear while growing up and he still writes. Unlike many of his peers, Coates denied religion growing up; Malcolm X was like a Godly figure to him and the book The Destruction of Black Civilization became his bible. Coates questions himself about what being “black” in America means and understands that we are threatened everyday. Coates tells us that it is a fear of destruction and the fear of destruction goes through black neighborhoods, as showed in weapons, fights, police, and inflexible system. It 's like people have to worry about protecting their lives than excelling in life. Coates ' story is most importantly filled with his way to understanding. It 's the account of how he came to comprehend the displeasure of his family, his friends, the brutality of his environment. Coates does not want his son to go through the same things as him in life. It 's the story of how he accommodated
Walker brought most of the horrific and even sickening scenes of the book to life, with the help and influence of society in history. One of the greatest influences to have an effect on Walker's style of writing and especially The Color Purple, were instances from slavery and prejudice. The whites owned and empowered America during the time of slavery. They had no respect for any other race, which they thought of as substandard. As Lean'tin Bracks stated, blacks were considered to be racially inferior, and they were used for the exploitation of the white culture. The whites used the black people as animals, and made them do their every bidding. Blacks and whites were separated form each other and this segregation of the two races barred blacks from legal and economic access, and they were put to punishment by the white culture. Interaction between the two races rarely occurred other than specific affairs or whites intruding on blacks. There were no penalties to pay by whites, therefore intrusions were common, and they took advantage of the African-Americans. The intrusions varied from breaking and entering to rape and murder for no apparent reason (84). Walker used this basis of racism to grip the reader and take them through a story of a women, who survives physical, verbal, and emotional abuse, everyday.
The story clearly illustrates that when one thinks of their ideal lifestyle they mainly rely on their personal experience which often results in deception. The theme is conveyed by literary devices such as setting, symbolism and iconic foreshadowing. The abolition of slavery was one step forward but there are still several more steps to be made. Steps that protect everyone from human trafficking and exploitation. Most importantly, racism is something that needs to stop, as well as providing equal opportunity to all without discrimination.
What I liked most about this book was the reality it revealed. It showed how brutal and cruel the society was. This book made me realize that racism is deeply embedded in the life and history of the nation, and it still exists in today’s society.