Whether we are naturally an optimist or more of a pessimist, it’s impossible to know what the future holds. So perhaps the best of both worlds is to be a realistic optimist - someone who tends to maintain a positive outlook, but within the constraints of what they know about the world (actionforhappiness.org).
After reading Between the World and Me, it is not hard to see that Ta-Nehesi Coates has gone through the rollercoaster ride of living in his black body. From growing up in the streets of Baltimore city, where fear and vulnerability was his bullet proof vest; to the fear of PG county police as a young adult. For Coates to tell his son that “the struggle is really all I have for you,” is not optimism nor pessimism, but it is the realism
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“You went into your room, and I heard you crying. I came in five minutes after, and I didn’t hug you, and I didn’t comfort you, because I thought it would be wrong to comfort you. I did not tell you it would be okay, because I’ve never believed it would be okay” (Coates, 21.) In this portion, Coates is demonstrating the struggle that many black parents have when talking to their children about their importance in the world. Many choose to tell their children that everything is going to be okay and there’s nothing to worry about. Deep down, though children want to believe their parents, they know their safety is in jeopardy. When little black boys watch TV and see their peers being killed in cold blood, it sparks fear and a need to defend themselves within. Coates feels it makes the most sense to be honest with his son because realistically everything is not going to sunshine and rainbows. It is his job to let him know that from what he has experienced with the world, things are not going to be “okay.” Coates has witnessed friends get gunned down, he himself has a gun pointed at him. These things aren’t what you would consider okay. Because he knows the things that could occur when you’re on the streets, he wants to be honest with his son. Though there are going to be hills and valleys, you must find a way to live …show more content…
It teaches us a way to channel our energy (qi), it teaches us how and when to react without been violent, making us stronger and self-defensive. To be black in America is to be placed in consistent condition of inequality, bias in the police department, racial profiling, and unfair criminal justice system. Yes. Absolutely. Knowing this keeps you up at night. It gets your blood pressure up. It sits on your shoulder, and you walk slower because of it. What do you do as your people are being slaughtered with what is implicit permission from the system of oppression? What do you do with it? How do you feel less helpless? What do you do with all that anger? Tai chi is the answer, it is a way of channeling all the pain, anger, aggression into something positive. It helps you to deal with the emotions that cause you to get angry because it centers you, and makes you more aware of where your body is in space. Tai chi turns that feeling of helplessness to a strength to overcome force and severity with softness, gentleness and smoothness. Tai chi teaches you to adapt your opponent’s style and beat him at it (the police tries to take advantage of black people by forcing a heated reaction out of them, but by mastering the act of Tai chi, you would be able to sink all that energy and react with
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,”
Coates wrote a 176 page long letter to his 14 years old son to explain what the African American society were going through at the time being. In the book, Coates used himself as an example to demonstrate the unjust treatment that had been cast upon him and many other African Americans. Readers can sense a feeling of pessimism towards African American’s future throughout the entire book although he did not pointed it out directly.
Staples successfully begins by not only admitting the possible faults in his practiced race but also by understanding the perspective of the one who fear them. Black males being opened to more violence because of the environment they're raised in are labeled to be more likely to cause harm or committing crime towards women but Staples asks why that issue changes the outlook of everyday face to face contact and questions the simple actions of a black man? Staples admits, "women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence," (Staples 384) however...
The way Staples structures this essay emphasizes his awareness of the problem he faces. The essay’s framework consists mostly of Staples informing the reader of a scenario in which he was discriminated against and then following it with a discussion or elaboration on the situation. This follow-up information is often an expression stating comprehension of his problem and than subtitle, logical criticisms toward it. For example, Staples describes women “fearing the worst of him” on the streets of Brooklyn. He then proceeds to declare that he understands that “women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence.” Staples supports this statement with information about how he had witnessed gang violence in Chester, Pennsylvania and saw countless black youths locked away, however, Staples pronounces that this is no excuse for holding every young black man accountable, because he was an example of a black man who “grew up one of the good boys” coming “to doubt the virtues of intimidation early on.” This narrative structure highlights that Staples is not a hypocrite because he is not show ignorance toward the problem he is addressing unlik...
Throughout, the documentary one can come to the conclusion that most of these African- Americans who live in this area are being judged as violent and bad people. However this is not the case, many of them are just normal people who are try...
In his book “Between the World and Me”, Ta-Nehisi Coates explores what it means to be a black body living in the white world of the United States. Fashioned as a letter to his son, the book recounts Coates’ own experiences as a black man as well as his observations of the present and past treatment of the black body in the United States. Weaving together history, present, and personal, Coates ruminates about how to live in a black body in the United States. It is the wisdom that Coates finds within his own quest of self-discovery that Coates imparts to his son.
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Dubois is a influential work in African American literature and is an American classic. In this book Dubois proposes that "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." His concepts of life behind the veil of race and the resulting "double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others," have become touchstones for thinking about race in America. In addition to these lasting concepts, Souls offers an evaluation of the progress of the races and the possibilities for future progress as the nation entered the twentieth century.
Essayist and author, Ta-Nehisi Coates, has composed several works. They vary from essays to books and he uses his platform to discuss cultural, political, and social issues. Two of his major works are his essay, “The Case for Reparations”, and his memoir, “The Beautiful Struggle”. The circumstances that Coates encountered within his memoir are a result of everything that he discussed his essay. He believes that there should be a case of reparations for the African-American people.
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
Coates first speaks of the non-indictment of Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown through his words to his son“…You stayed up till 11 pm that night, waiting for the announcement of an indictment, and when instead it was announced that there was none you said, “I’ve got to go,” and you went into your room, and I heard you crying. I came in five minutes after, and I didn’t hug you, and I didn’t comfort you, because I thought it would be wrong to comfort you. I did not tell you that it would be okay, because I have never believed it would be okay... (Coates, 2015)” Secondly, he narrates the story of Mabel Jones who worked hard to give her children comfortable lives including learning in private schools and frequent trips to Europe. Regardless of her social status and wealth, her son was tracked and killed by a policeman in what was considered a mistake. Surprisingly, Coates does not believe that only white officers discriminate against young black males. While it is clear that Darren Wilson, a white police man, is behind the death of Michael Brown who was a black teenager, he also reveals that Prince C. Jones, Jr. was killed in an altercation with a Prince George 's County, Virginia policeman who happened to be
He did not have the luxury of being open-minded and carefree, he was constantly on guard twenty-four-seven. He talks about having to succeed in school because had he failed in school he would be forced out on the streets where he would have to work even harder to protect his body. He speaks of the drug dealers who used violence and power as a means to disguise the fear of losing their bodies to the streets. Bell Hooks speaks of these same men in her essay Gangster Culture. Men in prison are views as superior because they are using the same power to mask to their bodies during a period of incarceration. Although every person who is currently incarcerated in America does not come from the ghetto they are still placed in an environment where their bodies have to be protected on a consistent basis. Coates says, “In America I was part of an equation- even if it wasn’t a part I relished. I was the one police stopped in the middle of a workday.” (p.124) As Coates then writes, “Your mother had to teach me how to love you-how to kiss you and tell you I love you every night. Even now, it does not feel like a ritual. And this is because I am wounded.” (p.125) The environment in which Coates was raised did not grant him the opportunity of being openly affect and loving because those this left his body vulnerable for attack. He makes reference to growing up in a hard house, a
In 2014, Dr. Wallace Best wrote a candid article for the Huffington Post discussing what he deemed as the irrational fear of black bodies. The context surrounding this critique stemmed from the surge of black men dying by white police officers. In the article, Dr. Best provided historical insight into this deeply rooted, unwarranted anxiety that white Americans have used as probable cause to commit violent acts against blacks, as well as systemic control over black men as a means of protection to maintain societal order. With this assertion, Dr. Best offered a critical analysis in understanding the fanatical need to preserve ownership over black movement due to this ubiquitous threat of black skin and the African American male. However, what
Coates writes, “To be African in the Baltimore of my youth was to be naked before the elements of the world, before all the guns, fists, knives, crack, rape, and disease. The law did not protect us. And now, in your time, the law has become an excuse for stopping and frisking you, which is to say, for furthering the assault on your body”. What Coates is saying is that for African-Americans unjust laws hurt and try to destroy African bodies than protect them from harm. What Coates really means by this is that the laws are created to benefit white Americans than African-Americans. Coates believes that the United States still have white privilege and African-Americans will never be equal or treated better than White Americans. Coates argues that police brutality to African-Americans still exist today. Coates writes, “And you have seen men in uniform drive by and murder Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old child whom they were oath-bound to protect. […] the police departments of your country have been endowed with the authority to destroy your body. It does not matter if the destruction is the result of an unfortunate overreaction”. What Coates is saying is that the police 's job is to prevent violence and protect the people. Yet, the police are abusing their powers to destroy African-Americans lives. Not only are policemen murdering criminals, they are murdering innocent unarmed African-Americans children. Therefore, Coates does not believe that King’s hopes were
Coates move away from the journalistic to the expressionistic. Coates combined memoir and history, anecdote and analysis, which represents a large shield that convey the emotional complexity of black society. The letter is a conversation with their children to protect them from police brutality and excesses of racism. Sometimes, Coates can be viewed as though he’s ignoring changes that have evolved over the decades saying that “you and I” belong to “that below” implying the bottom of the racial hierarchy in the American society. Coates truly experienced the negativity of life and those “struggle has ruptured and remade me several times over—in Baltimore…” Furthermore, Coates was exposed to every negativity the world had to offer. As he stated, growing up in Baltimore, there were filled with drugs, violence, and rape. Such danger part of the society affected his mindset of young children, “To be black in the Baltimore of my youth was to be naked before the elements of the world, before all the guns, fists, knives, crack, rape, and disease”. These examples of injustices that African Americans face are scattered throughout the text. Although the text flows smoothly, the arrangement of
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