“Between the World and Me” (2015) is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s 152-page letter to his 15-year-old son. It talks about his life, about the meaning of being Black – and White – in the US and passes on some fatherly wisdom. Toni Morrison says it is “required reading.”
As a boy, Coates remembers his mother
“clutching my small hand tightly as we crossed the street.”
He never fully understood that till someone he knew at Howard University, Prince Jones, was murdered by the police:
“She knew that the galaxy itself could kill me, that all of me could be shattered and all her legacy spilled upon the curb like bum wine. And no one would be brought to account for the destruction…”
“Black people love their children with a kind of obsession. You are all we have and you come to us endangered.”
He visits the mother of Prince Jones, and of Jordan Davis. Utterly heartbreaking.
His parents’s desperate love passed on their fear, a fear he had to face without religion, a fear confirmed by the violence of the West Baltimore streets where he grew up.
On television he saw the dispatches from another world, the land of the Dream where boys his age only feared poison oak.
The Dream was why he had to live in fear:
“In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body – it is heritage.”
The Dream was built in part on slavery, Jim Crow, redlining, ghettos and mass incarceration. Police brutality was the expressed democratic will of the Dreamers.
None of this was a secret, yet:
“there exists, all around us, an apparatus urging us to accept American innocence at face value and not to inquire too much.”
Dreamers have great powers of forgetting and are long practised in looking away, of not waking up from the Dream.
“It is still too difficult for most Americans to do this. But that is your work. It must be, if only to preserve the sanctity of your mind.”
He tells his son not to waste time on the Dreamers trying to wake them up:
“the stage where they have painted themselves white, is the deathbed of us all. The Dream is the same habit that endangers the planet, the same habit that sees our bodies stowed away, in prisons and ghettos.”
He urges his son to struggle, for wisdom, for the memory of his ancestors, for the freedom of Black people:
“History is not solely in our hands. And still you are called to struggle, not because it assures you victory, but because it assures you an honorable and sane life.”
At Howard University, where he knew Prince Jones, he saw Black people from all over the country and all over the world come together in one place. He calls it The Mecca. And there he saw and understood that, despite what the Dreamers want you to believe, Black people have created their own world that is beautiful and precious.
– Abagond, 2015.
See also:
- Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Washington Monthly: Black and Blue – an article Coates wrote about the police murder of Prince Jones
- Ta-Nehisi Coates: The Case for Reparations
- Ta-Nehisi Coates on Arizona SB1070
- Toni Morrison
- Jordan Davis
- James Baldwin
- Apple-pie America
- withdrawal into one’s community as a reaction to White racism:
584
Coates, as much as I like him, is a far more gentler man than I. He inoffensively refers to WHITENESS as “the Dream” whereas I prefer to call it what it is first and foremost – WHITENESS.
I may not live to see the creation of a myriad of thriving Meccas, the world over. Nonetheless, that’s *my dream*, seeing Black people, worldwide, come together in MANY places.
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I liked his use of “the Dream.” It captured my sense of what the racial order means in this country. As I read further into the book, his way of using language began to deeply resonate for me.
I didn’t get the sense that Coates intended his language to be inoffensive. Rather, he was trying to get at something more challenging to understand.
There is a sadness to how he portrays the fate of whites lost in their own lies and delusions. His portrayal of this Dream is simultaneously pitying and harsh. It struck a good balance in avoiding making it a book about white people and their whiteness.
So it seemed to me.
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I was listening to him on Fresh Air NPR podcast and he talked about growing up in Boston and how his family were strict disciplinarians because as a young black man they feared him losing his life to violence in the streets or death by the police. He talked about his distrust of law enforcement and how it shaped his parenting his son. He is a very articulate man. He made some excellent commentary about the Confederate flag coming down and how racist whites want to deflect what the symbolism of the flag really means which is slavery. He made an interesting statement about the shooting of the church members in Charleston how one can forgive the murderer of their loved ones. He said he just did understand that and he wouldn’t be able to forgive so quickly. He also talked about the challenges of raising his own son and the challenges he had of trying to act appropriately in the work place because he had so much pent up anger from trying to live in his environment that it was just kind of maddening. Especially after he went off on a fellow co-worker. He had to learn how to channel all of that anger with his writing. I enjoyed that this morning while doing my duties and listening on my headset. It was a good interview he his sharp and incisive.
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*didn’t*
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During the NPR podcast he does mention Prince Jones his friend and how the cops assumed the nice car he was driving was stolen since Jones came from a well to do family the pig cop that murdered this brother claiming they “feared for their life” claiming Jones was going to run him over with his vehicle. That incident shaped how he feels about law enforcement and how the cops treated black men in his neighborhood in Boston. I could listen to him all day he is so intelligent.
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When he describes how the police was not in uniform and didn’t show a badge and this policeman was not punished for killing this man. And they know this policeman was a liar and this happened 15 years ago. No one was held accountable for this man’s death and the police record still says that Prince Jones attempted to kill this officer.
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He is eloquence sort of reminds me of Baldwin i think i like him better.
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Tradition and Heritage! On one hand, Amerika’s quietness and clinging propensity for these two words pretty sums up the lifelong fear on the other hand that black parents in particular and blacks people in general wish not. We fear the approaching hour of losing a loved to Amerikan violence almost constantly because we do not know when it will pay a visit in this hostile gun culture, awashed in white polity. To be black in Amerika is to exude existential fear. This is another beautifully written piece by Mr. Coates, who has obviously mastered the English lexicon!
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Wasn’t Prince Jones killed by a Black officer?
And his being an Athiest may have something to do with his lack of faith in a positive outcome from the struggle.
Mr Coates? Meh… Just another guy who holds onto his victimhood and fear…
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Had to look up this case and then I realized that I remember reading about it when it happened.
Yep, it was a PG County,MD cop who chased him over to Fairfax County, VA before shooting him dead. PG County had already led the nation for police brutality in the 1990s.
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/19/AR2006011902346.html)
Officer Liable in Student’s Killing
What is even more interesting is that
– Fairfax County, VA failed to file any charges against the officer
– PG county police found no wrongdoing
– PG county jury found him guilty of murder
Coates discussed the situation of Prince George’s County and Prince Jones in an article he authored:
(http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0106.coates.html)
Maybe Abagond could include that link in the post.
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@ Jefe
Thanks. I added the link.
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@ Uglyblackjohn
Coates did point out that the officer was Black, as were the politicians who helped to put in place the brutal police force that he was a part of. I thought Coates was going to get deep into that, but he did not. He writes it off as Blacks in PG County buying into the same mindset of “safety” over justice as Whites.
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When I tell Americans, esp. those I meet abroad, that I found the USA so brutally violent and racist, and that is one reason I desperately wanted to leave, they think I am making things up.
Non-Americans do not even understand what I am talking about.
Sometimes I wonder if it is just where I grew up or if the rest of the country was like that. But other places that I have spent extended periods of time or lived in (ie, Boston, New York, Alabama) all seemed very racist and violent to me too.
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In the NPR podcast I don’t recall him mentioning the cop being black have to go back listen again. Black cop doesn’t mean “good cop” I see this now. Especially after what happened to Freddy Gray.
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@MB,
Please read the article by Coates that Abagond posted in the links.
Prince Jones was a local resident of PG county, MD, yet was chased and killed by a black PG county cop through DC and across the river into Virginia. Coates tries to analyze why PG county’s police brutality got worse even after it became majority black middle and upper middle class. with a mostly black political leadership, as well as why some jurisdictions sometimes revert to electing white officials to replace previously elected blacks.
In majority black places like PG county and Baltimore, we do see black cops policing black neighborhoods and directing their brutality on blacks. That is why replacing Ferguson’s mayor and police department with blacks might not solve the police brutality problem.
The racism is so internalized within the political framework of the nation, that upper middle class black neighborhoods want their black cops to protect them from middle class blacks, and middle class black neighborhoods want the black cops to protect them from lower middle class blacks.
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In most cases Coats is saying things that many others before him have said. He is achieving fame and acclaim. Such is the fickle nature of fame, I suppose. But as ephemeral things like “fame” and “success” seem, Coates must be given credit. He’s a fantastic writer. I’ve told my kids over and over again that good writing is about three things: organization, organization, and organization (the overall structure, the section/paragraph structure, and the sentence structure). Coates masters all of these. His writing is concise (although he could learn a thing or two on that bit from Agabond) and clear and flows toward his conclusion without the academic blather you too often see with academics writing on the same topics. His recent Atlantic article on incarceration is another must-read.
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@abagond
Coates wrote that piece about Jones back in 2001. Are you aware if he has made any subsequent analysis of why PG experienced ever higher police brutality directed towards blacks AFTER it became majority black, wealthier and with a black political leadership?
Has any other social commentator made a deeper analysis of this phenomenon?
I actually don’t think Coates just wrote it off just as you said. He does allude to internalized racism, eg,
Also, he suggests that affluent blacks might be a bit delusional about racism in the US, as he concludes his opinion piece:
I think it is because the system that made certain groups of blacks more affluent is one that is still based on racism and white supremacy — challenging that system could shatter the factors that made those blacks affluent in the first place.
I think this even further strengthens Baldwin’s argument that Black economic power is dependent on White economic power. Extending that postulate leads us to the corollary that Black political power is still dependent White political power and that affluent blacks feel a need to demonstrate (to Whites? or to other affluent Blacks?) that they can brutalize or otherwise disenfranchise less affluent Blacks even more than Whites do, in order to maintain their political and social position in society.
It was argued that 100-150 years ago, Whites taught, say, Irish-Americans to keep Blacks in line to maintain their status position (ie, honorary white status, and nowadays, just “white”). Perhaps in the past 20 years, even affluent upper middle class Blacks (and the middle class Blacks they hire) are now assuming that role. But, even as affluent blacks differentiate themselves from less affluent blacks, the “system” (which includes Black civil servants) does not make that differentiation.
Growing up in PG county I used to hear all sorts of comments that Blacks in PG county used to make about, say, the ones in Anacostia (the “ghetto”), a differentiation that even Black cops would not make when they are chasing after thuggified individuals (eg, middle class suburban Blacks like Prince Jones).
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Ta-Nehisi Coates is an informative individual. I believe his son started secondary school in France.
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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34393020
“Ta-Nehisi Coates and Hamilton playwright among ‘Genius winners'”
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Lol smokin weed now but i call fact check
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Wrong thread sorry its this damn phone i tell ya lol
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So, different classes of Blacks have different expectations? And Coates does not speak for all Blacks?
I know this is anecdotal but until I was eight we lived in the hood in a Southern California town. Whenever we children saw the police we would take off running – it was what we were taught.
Until my mom’s divorce, we moved to an integrated neighborhood higher in the hills near the golf courses.
Whenever we children saw the police we would wave and speak – it was what we were taught.
At fifteen (after the divorce) we moved back to the hood. Whenever the police would come around everyone but me would run. When asked by the officers why I didn’t run, I would just shrug and tell them that it was because I wasn’t doing anything wrong. The dope-boys and bangers would always run but the kids that were just hanging out would (over time) just nod at the police speak (Officer, ‘You all alright?’. Us, ‘Just chillin’.’ Officer,’Keep out of trouble.’. Us,’A’ight.’) and then we’d keep talking as the officers called other cops to pursue the runners.
I think these experiences shaped my expectations when dealing with the Po-Po. As with every occupation, some are good and some are bad.
I knew the sheriff (he was my sister’s best friend’s dad), the chief of police (I had played water polo with his son), a lot of officers and a lot of 911 operators. My DWB experiences were more like: Officer (after running my plates and checking my license), ‘John, so-and-so says hi and to slow down.’. Even when I had dudes who may have have been dirty with me the officer would say, ‘You might want to drop Trey, Ray Ray or Pookie and dem off if you are going to be riding tonight.’
This constant state of fear about which Mr Coates writes is the wrong thing to teach to his son or anyone else.
Not that he’s not a good writer – he’s just not for me and/or mine.
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“This constant state of fear about which Mr. Coates writes is the wrong thing to teach to his son or anyone else.” – Uglyblackjohn
I’m a firm believer in everyone having a right to his or her own opinion. However, may I ask why you believe that Mr. Coates is doing his son a dis-service by informing him of the legacy of Amerikan violence targeting us, which has developed a certain amount of valid fair amongst black folks from a historical angle? Just curios!
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My bad, I meant to spell curious.
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Uglyjohn:
“Wasn’t Prince Jones killed by a Black officer?
And his being an Athiest may have something to do with his lack of faith in a positive outcome from the struggle.
Mr Coates? Meh… Just another guy who holds onto his victimhood and fear…”
I’m curious: Is that what you think of every black person who draws attention to the real, documented, and undeniable existence of systemic racism in this country? Do you really think he should tell his son to get over it instead of actually informing him about how the American reality operates? Also, you’re correct: your previous comment, in which you had an experience atypical of most black youth, IS anecdotal, and seems to have skewed your understanding of the American reality – the one accurately documented and eloquently described by Mr. Coates, Chauncey DeVega, Abagond, and many, many others. As for your comment about atheists – again, I ask if you honestly think that having faith in and talking to an invisible superbeing in the sky will do anything productive right here, right now for the black community?
What about the black churches that have been burned and shot up all throughout Am. history, right up to the present? Is God just cool with that? Is he punishing black people for having faith, which you so audaciously assert is essential to achieving “a positive outcome from the struggle”?
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..Read a lot of this wonderful “love letter” from father to his beloved son, and must say that Ta-Nehisi Coates is at the top o’ his (literary) game with this book, it’s certainly an easy-flowin’, well-constructed must read in my opinion.
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(..I read, ..)
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@ Nick – I’m not a fan of most (Black) churches. I know and deal with enough pastors to see their hustle. IMOHO – The type of faith they preach is what causes many of the ills within the communities they are supposed to be serving.
But yes. Biblically speaking – fear is the opposite of faith.
I was just curious as to whether his lack of faith is what causes his constant state of fear.
@ blakksage – While I don’t currently live in the hood, I deal with it on the daily. I know most of the felons, dope boys, hookers and dirty cops in an area that is not just ghetto but country-ghetto.
When my little cousins or the kids I tutor talk about being ‘gangsta”, I take them with me to visit the elderly I check on in my rentals. Most of the kids get scared when they see how real life is but I tell them that they don’t have to be afraid and that they just have to be aware. I tell them that they don’t have to be thugs but that should never be a b!+€#. Men with face-tattoos, gold teeth, slabbin’ and smoking blunts roll up, give me daps and ask if these kids are my people. ‘Listen to your uncle.’, they say to a person.
If I were afraid I’d be writing about the hood instead of trying to help those within it.
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@ Uglyblackjohn
From what I’ve seen, most police officers fail to distinguish between the “dope boys” and “bangers” and the good kids who’re minding their own business. To paraphrase Officer Colicchio from The Wire, “they’re dirty either way.” That often has life-changing, sometimes even fatal consequences.
That’s why the best and most prudent way of dealing with the police is to not deal with them at all, regardless if you’re doing or not doing anything. You were lucky that the cops didn’t decide to take their frustrations about not catching those other kids out on you.
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Putting said existential fear into the black population was and remains the best way of controlling and managing the unspoken “black problem” in the United States. But something like that can’t go on forever and this nation is quickly approaching its “do or die” moment on that issue.
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” But something like that can’t go on forever and this nation is quickly approaching its “do or die” moment on that issue.”
Humpty D time’s up…
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again. – SMH
This nation is toast. I’m not feeling any reprieves whatsoever coming to Amerikkka. The country had its chances to change its course. It chose not to.
Its ironic how the people and the normally secular TV NEWS networks were beside themselves with all of the emotion, pomp and ceremony emanating from the USA’s recent visitor… but I digress.
But you’re right. The country is QUICKLY approaching – something.. and my tingling spidey sense says it ain’t good! I’m also feeling a change of current in the air from a bunch of anxious home-sick pigeons heading this way.
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@ Mack Lyons – Even here in Texas I seem to meet a lot of cops. I met the head of Internal Affairs while eating dinner at a bar, I met the Chief of Police while doing volunteer work, our probable next sheriff wants to do a fund raiser at my club and many (white) cops come to my club (one or two at a time in plain clothes) as an exercise to help them understand the differences between ‘excited’ and ‘aggressive’ behavior.
As I deal with many people from the hood, sometimes I need favors or information from these officers.
Back home in Cali, I’ve had white officers help me carry the caskets of former dope boys – who were shot by old rivals – but who had turned their lives around. I’ve walked through drawn guns and barricades by just saying,’Man, that ain’t my (mess).’. And on and on..
I KNOW my experiences are not normal but I have yet to walk around in a constant state of fear and I refuse to accept any title of ‘victim’. With the recent motor cycle club killings in Waco (and the rumored retribution from Black and white MCs) and the information coming out about police misconduct and their abuses of power – the police in Texas currently have more to fear than Black citizens.
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brilliant writer…great book….
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Adding to our personal library for our kids required reading before heading to college. Great review, Abagond. I’m looking forward to this read.
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Finished T. Coates letter to his son “Between the World and Me”. I thought it had some great insights. I couldn’t relate too much to his world view being an atheist. I still enjoyed the frank honest of his heart and the great love he has for his son. The only critique is it being a bit too melancholy and depressing regarding destruction of black bodies
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