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Summary Of Trail Of Tears By Ta-Nehisi Coates

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“If I was not innocent… then they were not innocent. Could this mix of motivation also affect the stories they tell? The cities they built? The country they claimed as given to them by God?” (Coates 30 ). Ta-Nehisi Coates writes a letter to his son explaining innocence. He tells him how the destroyers of his black body will hardly be held accountable for their actions. He explains how the people who have the authority to protect and serve this country are also capable of harming innocent people. Coates uses the Middle Passage, Trail of Tears, Michael Brown, and the Civil War to explain about innocence. Coates mentions the Middle passage and the Trail of Tears as how it is being viewed as though it was something that naturally occurred. He explains how Americans view racism as a natural phenomenon that innocently occurred. “Racism is rendered as the innocent daughter of Mother Nature, and one is …show more content…

“But American reunion was built on a comfortable narrative that made enslavement into benevolence… kind of sport in which one could conclude that both sides conducted their affairs with courage, honor, and élan. This lie of the Civil War is the lie of innocence, is the Dream” (Coates 102). He explains how the Civil War is thought of where things occurred naturally and innocently. The fact is, it’s not. America is built on lies, trying to make enslavement as a thing of kindness, where mass slaughter on both sides is thought of something done with honor. Coates says how the reason he is obsessed with the Civil War is because the people who taught him about it decided to leave imported details out (Coates 106). By saying this, he is able to explain how unfair and wrong their education was. Could it be that the reason they would conceal some major details about the war is because they knew what they did was wrong? For this reason Coates uses the reference of the Civil War in his book to explain

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