Intersectionality In 'Ta-Nehisi Coats' Between The World And Me

Intersectionality points to the fact that people are affected, often adversely, not only by their race, but also by their gender, sexual orientation, class, age, and global location. In the novel, “Between the World and Me,” Ta-Nehisi Coates tells a story that demonstrates an instance of intersectionality in which a black boy raised in the ghettos of Baltimore experiences first hand how racial, class, and global location, intertwined, induce a of life hardship on the author, for social reasons other than just race alone. The book is formatted as a letter to the author’s fifteen year old son, Samori, in which the writer (and father) instills his wisdom on his son and, ultimately, outlines how to survive and live “in a black body in America.”

The novel is unique in that it can be read in many different ways: an exploration of the African American experience, the black American male experience, the experience of growing up in urban America, as a book about raising a child or being one.The theme this essay will focus on is the one depicted by the author of the “American Dream,” which presents itself upon the death of his colleague, Prince Jones, who attended Howard University with him and who was always remembered as a handsome, charismatic, and well-off black man.
Prince Jones died at the age of twenty-five, eighteen years ago by an undercover a county police officer, who had been tailing him. It was later discovered that the description the police officer was supposed to be on the look out for was a 5’4’’, 250-pound African American man suspected of distributions of drugs. However, Prince Jones was a 6’3’’, 211-pound, notably upstanding and religious African American man, which eventually does not add up, putting the police officer on the spot, who responds by claiming that Jones had driven his Jeep into the undercover vehicle. Essentially, the officer responsible was never charged, categorizing it with other infamous stories of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Tamir Rice.
Within the reflections and analyses that Coates’ conducts, he — angered, disillusioned, and resentful — concludes that black bodies lack value in American society and can be “done away with” at any given moment, despite an individual’s prosperity they may have in other social categorization, such as wealth and social class (as seen with Prince Jones). Of substantial significance is the opinion Coates reaches after thinking about what the meaning of the preceding suggestion really mean: Ta-Nehisi asserts that the individual officer who killed Prince is not the only one responsible, with blood on his hands — it coequally falls on those who believe and advocate in the American Dream, as the County Police’s actions are a direct representation and expression of America’s beliefs as a society. Coates goes on to discuss how historical factors other than just slavery played an impactful role in the destruction of the black body: the battles fought during the Civil War, Jim Crow laws, police brutality and racial profiling, and lastly, the popular endorsement of the American Dream.
The “American Dream” long stands for the mindset that in the United States, one can achieve social and economical elevation if one works hard enough and is dedicated enough.

This “social climbing,” Coats contends allows Americans to invest on what the society feels is important in life: comfort, security, and materialistic items that alert others of their prosperity. Consequently, an instinct that “people who think they are White” have acquired over the years in reaction to situations that induce discomfort is one of negligence and dis-regardance, fundamentally responsible for these people’s predominant belief in the American Dream, which blissfully ignores the working hand their privileges provided by their “putative whiteness” contributed in the makings. This idea coincides with the concept put forth by Peggy McIntosh in 1988 known as “white privilege.” Coates touches on this idea through his explanation of the “perils of being a young black boy,” which include having to be “twice as good,” having to take responsibility for the actions of other black people, having to know and follow the “rules,” and having to struggle more than anyone else. Examples originally put forth by McIntosh consist of never having to speak for all the people of my racial group as a Caucasian, and always being able to be casual about whether or not to listen to another person’s voice in a group in which s/he is the only member of his/her race (McIntosh, White Privilege and Male Privilege). Coates

recalls a story he partook in as a black boy in America, which forces him to come to realize early on that the color of his skin is equally as foretelling of society’s behavior and attitude towards him as his geographic location is — an exemplary illustration of intersectionality’s prevalence in society.
Another category that intertwines through intersectionality to create the present social standards that is touched on in this novel is the gender role. This book mirrors the cultural and social teachings of both masculinity and femininity, as it employs the symbol of armor, a frequent motif of black men using armor to protect themselves and to assert their strength, individuality, and humanity, which is witnessed in the clothing, music, voices, language, gestures, swaggers, and weapons that are fashioned by individuals. Coates, on multiple occasions, speaks on femininity as much as one can when they do not partake in that social group, discussing the ways in which he will never understand or be fully aware of the extent to which women face insecurity in their bodies.
In all, the author wrote this book with the intent of sharing the struggles of being a young black male in America, not to discuss inequity, discrimination, and intersectionality as a whole.

He offers the reader insight for which s/he can reflect with and, ideally transpire discussion. The father’s letter to his fifteen year old son, outlining the cruel realities of the world in which they live, represents a greater concept practiced by blacks in America: the teaching of racism. In most cases, as exhibited by the real life scenario recounted in this book, black children learn racism at a young age from their parents, who, given their years and experiences, fear for their childrens’ lives on an unsurpassable level. Coates recounts his childhood, describing his awareness that “not being violent enough could cost [him] his body. Being too violent could cost [him] his body” (Coates, Page 28). The author speaks of how he, first-hand, witnessed the parental teachings of race to children in the black community, explaining that fathers who slammed their teenage boys for sass would eventually send them off into the streets, where they would be greeted to the same justice, and that mothers who belted their girls attempted to do the same, but unfortunately were unsuccessful in saving these girls from drug dealers twice their age. Ta-Nehisi Coates comes to recognize and accept the fact that the law did not protect blacks in Baltimore and it was time for him to adjust and survive or

become a casualty to the rigid streets in which he roamed.
In writing this letter to his son, Coates acknowledges that his son has grown up differently than he did, remaining emotionally detached from injustices to those like Michael Brown and regarding such events as individual cases as opposed to the larger reality of racism in America. Additionally, his son lives in a world that has reigned under the leadership of a black president, in a world in which he knows the grandness of the world and what it has to offer, in a world where he has larger dreams and aspirations for his future than worrying about who he is walking to school with today or how many times he has smiled during the walk and the voice he projects. Much of Coates’ brain growing up was designated toward navigating the world, constantly trying to decipher the language and rules of the streets. This lifestyle has had significant and enduring effects on the author, who feels as though America has robbed him of something: either time or experience. His son, Samori, remains ignorantly bliss to these harsh and unfair past times that haunt many African Americans, continuing on about his life being personally unaware of these rules, and only intuitively perceiving how he could be Trayvon Martin.
However, the reality remains the same that inhabiting a black body in America brings about additional, particular expectations and pressures for African Americans that fundamentally have the power to rob one of their life. Relating back to his earlier anecdote about his classmate Prince Jones, the author concludes with a visit he pays to the mother of Prince Jones, Dr. Mable Jones. As he marvels over her fortune and opulence while she tells her life story, Coates discerns the reality of the moment, investigating beneath the surface of her words, and realizes that she suffers under the weight of knowing that her country did not care about her son, murdered her son, forgot about her son. And no amount of materialistic items, which the American Dream would sight as the sources of true success and pure happiness, could make that okay.
In Ta-Nehisi Coates’ final takeaways from his recounts of life experiences, he contends that one day the “Dreamers” will wake into consciousness, but cautions that hope should not be expected when this happens, but instead fear, as on this day, all will reap the consequences of what the Dreamers have sown by plundering the earth as they plunder black bodies.