As a counter for “Patriotism is for White People” by Terrell Jermaine Starr, Michael Harriot describes how America came to be because of Black people. Black America is the group most responsible for making America live up to the saying of “liberty and justice for all.” “They are the ones who screamed at America to do better” as Michael Harriot describes it. The Root is an American online magazine on Black people culture which will feature news and opinions on black issues in the United States. This article is useful because people can realize how helpful has been black people in the country and because of all their actions they deserve to be treated equally and not as a minority.
In Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, a biographical novel discussing race relations, he expresses his thoughts about being an African American in the United States. His innermost views repeatedly involve his memories of living in times where his own race is assaulted for irrational reasons. All of these thoughts were directly communicated toward his son, Samori, to convey that he wants his son to understand that being a black individual carries a large burden. In doing so, Coates wants to ensure that his son still remain ambitious and positive without down casting himself by the color of his skin. He conveys this message by incorporating many examples of metaphors and imagery in order to assert that being this particular race should not hinder his son’s desires.
Between the World and Me, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates is a powerful book written as a letter from the author to his teenage son. This book outlines the race issue in America from a first hand perspective. The author explains his struggles and fears as he grew up and how those fears transformed into a new meaning as he reached adulthood. Through his personal story, the reader is offered insight into the lives of other African Americans and how they may experience racial injustice themselves.
Even just by reading pages 5-12, I can tell that Ta-Nehisi Coates is a good writer because his essay is highly thoughtful and provocative, and the well-written narrative provides lots of powerful examples to depicts the racial struggle in the U.S. He told his son, “You must always remember that the sociology, the history, the economics, the graphs, the charts, the regression all land, with great violence, upon the body.” The concept of violence upon the body appears on every important point of my reading. This is more powerful than the examples of law enforcement and black Americans because it leads the reader to truly see the the fears provoked.
This is shown through Ta-Nehisi’s experience in Baltimore, the destruction of black bodies by law enforcement and the ignorance of “white” people. First of all, Coates shows that black bodies in America are as much in danger now than it was centuries
Here is what I would like for you to know: In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body, it is heritage”. (103) That quote comes the most compelling theme in Coates letter, it how and he describes the black body and how it is always under threat racism, Coates writes “so that America might justify itself, the story of a black body's destruction must begin with his or her error, real or imagined”. Coates goes on and writes on how in black American history that black men and women have had their bodies shackled, beaten, lynched and enslaved by America. Then he compares black history to present time here in America and now witnesses the current black experience with police brutality and senseless shootings, that play out on cable news.
Rhetorical Analysis Author Ta-Nehisi Coates in his book Between the World and Me discusses impactful racial issues in American history and educates his son on the past and current realities of being a black American. At the beginning of the book, Coates imposes the question: “How do I live freely in this black body?” (Coates 12).
Spoken word poetry is the oral poetic form of poems. In Joshua Bennet's spoken word performance of "Tamara's Opus" at the White House on May 12, 2009, he conveys how communication restores and connects relationships among people. Bennet also conveys that admitting to your immorality and apologizing is crucial to forgiveness. Bennet demonstrates this by emphasizing his change throughout the spoken performance using sign language, gestures, and tone. For teens in my community, this is a performance I recommend watching, as it teaches us all about communication and apology.
Dave Matthews of the Dave Mathews Band was asked about the inspiration for the song, “Gaucho,” and he replied with this statement. “The saddest part of the human race is we’re obsessed with this idea of ‘us and them,’ which is really a no-win situation whether it’s racial, cultural, religious or political.” W.E.B. Du Bois, Richard Wright, and Gunnar Myrdal wrote about race in the United States. Each of them wrote from different perspectives and their writings reflected that.
This furthers the marginalization of these bodies and imposes an unmournable and invisible aspect upon them. Another example of bodies that have seemed to not matter over the past three centuries is the African American population. They were oppressed during slavery, the Jim Crow, and now mass incarceration and police brutality. These forms of subjugation all reveal the lack of care and importance placed on black lives. In a forum between George Yancy and Judith Butler, Butler discusses this lack of importance in regards to the “black lives matter” phrase, “So what we see is that some lives matter more than others…and that other lives matter less, or not at all” (Yancy and Butler 2).
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates is a book with a powerful message about racism and white power in America. Coates chose to write his book as a letter addressed to his fifteen-year-old son, Samori. The letter format is a clever way to get his message across by making the book a personal experience, rather than preaching to the readers about racism. Early in the reading he states, “my work is to give you what I know of my own particular path while allowing you to walk your own” (Coates 39). He sets up the story by informing the reader that he is not flawless and still doesn’t fully understand life, but he is going to try his hardest to pass his knowledge of the world to his son, and anyone reading.
This illustrates the ways in which Black People, body and soul, are coveted, damaged, and ultimately stolen in this modern “colonization” of their psyche. This racism is more subtle than what is commonly recognized as racism. It takes the form of idolization, envy, and “positive” generalizations. Within is also “white guilt,” the tendency of many liberally minded people to feel guilty for their whiteness.
The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates is an article issue in June 2014. The article is about discrimination, segregation, and racism toward black Americans. Two and a half centuries ago American success was built on slavery. And in present day African American are being discriminated for the color of their skin that even now the wound that black Americans face in their daily life has never been healed or fully atoned for. In this article Ta-Nehisi Coates discusses the struggle African American went through and all the hard time they face in their daily
Frederick Douglass’s “What the Black Man Wants” captures the need for change in post Civil War America. The document presses the importance for change, with the mindset of the black man being, ‘if not now then never’. Parallel to this document is the letter of Jourdon Anderson, writing to his old master. Similar to Douglas, Mr. Anderson speaks of the same change and establishes his worth as freed man to his previous slave owner. These writings both teach and remind us about the evils of slavery and the continued need for equality, change, and reform.
In The Meaning of Freedom, activist Angela Davis critiques the plausibility of democracy and collective freedom in the United States. By examining parallels between slavery and the carceral state, Davis contends that the two systems mutually characterize black people as disposable and compels them to incapacitation. Focusing on the two oppressive systems’ reliance on the maintenance of ignorance, Davis discusses how this ignorance is connected to America’s dominant sentiments of capitalism and self-interest, which, altogether, perpetuate cycles of abuse that disproportionately harm communities of color and lower-class peoples. As a result, this propels the creation of social hierarchies which, because it inherently cultivates inequalities, causes America’s classification as a “democracy” to be impossible.
