Ta-Nehisi Coates Letter To My Son

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In “Letter to My Son,” Ta-Nehisi Coates shares prescient advice and guidance to his newly fifteen year old son about being a Black man in 21st century America, in hopes of preparing him for what is to come. Coates uses prose to relay his past experiences with inequality, injustice, and violence throughout his life, along with teaching his son about his powerful resilience and liberation of his heritage and community. At the center of Coates’ teachings is his analysis and critique of the “Dream,” more specifically the Dream being an illusion of America’s current racial progress and equality. He explained what the “Dream” consists of, which is the idealistic American bubble that keeps people ignorant of what Black Americans have been and are facing. In his words, …show more content…

Black Americans have been enslaved for longer than they’ve been free (Coates 17), and that holds weight when looking at how our society treats the kin of it’s creator. He also instills pride in his son, reminding him that there is no “them without you,” speaking on their ancestry, and goes on to say “without the right to break you they must necessarily fall from the mountain, lose their divinity, and tumble out of the Dream.” By saying this, he intimates to his son (and to any Black reader) that because his bloodline built this country and if he sees America for what it is, the entire system of government will collapse. Another way Coates prepares his son for the society he lives in is by explaining how racism is shown presently, directly or indirectly. When his son was a young child, he was pushed by a white woman and Coates felt as if she was “pulling rank” on him (Coates

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