Truth, Race, and Resentment: Ta-Nehisi Coates' Experience

Between the world and me is a novel written in such a way that the reader feels as though the author, Ta-Nehisi Coates’, is writing to them. Written as a letter to his son, Coates explains his life starting at a very young age to today’s world where his son is living and explains the racial segregation and dehumanization that he has witnessed throughout his life. He writes this letter so that his son can be made aware that being a “dreamer” can ultimately hurt you in a world that dehumanizes certain skin colors. Coates learns how to follow his own desires and to seek truth through learning and having interactions with people he never thought he would, but he also has a lot of resentment against his country and how people of color are treated.

Seeking the truth for oneself is a huge theme throughout this book because often times Coates finds himself needing to figure things out on his own. He grew up in a “loving house even as it was besieged by its country, but it was hard,”(pg 126) because his parents wanted him to know at a young age that because of

his skin color, he had a target on his back. He was often times hit if he was caught talking back or not acting appropriately because they didn’t want him to end up getting himself in trouble with someone that could end his life. In school, he was always a “curious boy, but the schools were not concerned with curiosity. They were concerned with compliance”(pg 26). Often times to actually figure things out he would read and write because his grandmother taught him at a young age. This opened a new world for him to interrogate the situation instead of simply curbing his behavior.

His truth seeking was most demonstrated at Howard University where he truly started learning about things on his own. “The pursuit of knowing was freedom to me, the right to declare your own curiosities and follow them through all manner of books,”(pg 48) meaning that he found most of his knowledge through independent reading, not even the things he’s taught in class. To him the classroom was a jail that didn’t “feed” him in a way that his knowledge could expand in the way he wanted it to. Through this way of learning, Coates believes that he “found himself” in a world that he often felt left behind and not valued. He found truth in knowledge that he was able to independently pursue.

Even though Coates was able to form opinions and knowledge through his independent readings this ultimately led him to being more bitter and resenting the world he grew up in and lives in. His opinion, though accurate, relates to black bodies not truly belonging to themselves because they must always take into consideration what other black people have done and how whites will perceive them because of those actions. Even if that black person has never done anything truly wrong, “they must be responsible for the worst actions of other black bodies, which will be assigned to them.”(pg 71) This all stems from the slavery that black people had to go through and the heinous crimes that are being committed against them still today. Cops are shooting black men because they believe that they look “suspicious” and these cops are getting off scot free. This a direct example that happened in Coates’ life because a well respected friend of his was framed and killed for actions that he didn’t do. The cop had previously been suspended for a like crime and this time was no different. It’s event like these that make black men feel as though they have no control over their body, especially against those that are suppose to protect all.
These themes relate to education because throughout the book, Coates takes his own education into his own hands.

Growing up, it was never “cool” to be good at school and he often found himself not enjoying it because he had to be there. He felt as though his education made him a follower of the way society wanted you to think, but because of his resentment of the society he lived in, he didn’t like learning this way. Education for Coates was a way for his curiosity to flourish. The library was his safe space where he was able to read up on events, peoples and places that sparked his interest and that made him much more knowledgeable on all aspects of life, but specifically about blacks lives. His education was sparked by him seeking the truth about how blacks are treated, but after learning all that he did he resented the world that was around him because he was able to form knowledgeable opinions on these

events.

My education was called into question after I read this book, not because I felt like I resented what I was taught, but because of how I was taught. I always felt like I was being taught to take a test, which never really peaked my interest in anything. I learned when the teacher didn’t give out study guides, I was much more motivated to teach myself about the topics and explore everything about it so that I was well rounded in my knowledge. Today’s education system doesn’t allow students the time to really seek out what they want to know about certain topics because we are so busy with the classes we are already taking and all the extracurricular activities we do to keep us sane. Like you were saying in lecture that you learned the most from the classes you sat in on and weren’t graded on, I feel the same about the classes I take. The classes were I am free to state personal opinions on topics and am not given busy work to do for homework, I appreciate them more and enjoy going to those. Even the books I choose to read for fun seem to go by quicker because I want to read them versus the books you have to read in class. Having to do something immediately makes it less enjoyable for me, but I think that’s true for many people. Getting to seek out the truth for yourself without having to take in everyone’s opinions is one of the best ways to educate yourself and Coates opened my eyes to this as an option now that I am in college.

Between the world and me was a book that really opened up my eyes to lives people have to live because society has deemed certain skin color inferior than other. Coates’ life is amazingly in depth and personally talked about which made me feel as though I was there with him. For me, I don’t know what it’s like to be segregated into a subculture or have the actions of people of my race directly affect me on a daily basis. His life is something I will never be able to understand or relate to, but it is something I am curious about because I am tired of being ignorant. Taking a blind eye to the discrimination that still happens today is only feeding the problem more and just agreeing with whatever your parents say is no longer acceptable at this stage in my life. I am in need to understand other people and how the color of my skin has afforded me luxuries that I was truly unaware that others don’t receive. Not only did this book start a hunger in me to understand others and empathise with the decisions they have to make on a daily basis, it told me the specific authors and books I can read to continue learning more about these things. I would recommend this book to anyone because it is very well written, but it also pushes you as a reader because of the sophisticated language it uses. Truly, I learned more about a culture in a book than in a class I could have taken because of Coates’ ability to be vulnerable and personal with the reader.