Essay: Ta-Nehisi Coates’s novel “Between the world and me”

Author Ta-Nehisi Coates’s novel, ”Between the world and me,” uses an introductory event as a technique to tell his son and the reader on how he was interviewed on a famous show and was being asked what it meant to lose his body although, the host did not say it specifically, he is used to being asked about his body, and understands that the woman is trying to understand why he thinks American progress. However, he explains that it made difficult by the fact that there is such a large gap between the the audience he is asked to address and  black people community including himself but he clarifies that he is actually referring to the white American progress and has been made possible by “looting and violence.” (page 6). He said that his question tires him, because he feels that the American history myth only answer lies within itself. furthermore, he said that  America is not unique in any abuse, violation, and infringement as many other people in the democracy system have committed the same crimes which he actually he believed that the United States was based on violence. Coates point out a detail in which people idealize reality that prevents them in a way from acknowledging the truth. In general, he points out that the democracy of America failed in figuring out what it means to people when they only think that they understand race, believing it is a “defined, indubitable feature of the natural world” (page 7). He added that it is not referring to America, in fact, it is a part of human history and has always viewed itself as exceptional and pure when it comes to democracy. He discussed the deaths of, Tamir Rice, Renisha McBride, Eric Garner and others, which he points out the brutality and the violence of the police department where in actual bodies are destroyed as he said. In addition, these killings make it obvious that police in America are “endowed with the authority to destroy” (page 9) black bodies and that no matter what black people do, they will never be safe from this risk of violence. Coates argues that racism is a “visceral,” bodily experience (page 10) which we forget because of the language and academics. When his son heard out about the result of  the killers of Michael Brown are going to be free, he cried and Coats couldn’t comfort him not only because he could not do something, instead, told him that he must find a way to live his life well. Here Coates demonstrates that black parents are different from the way that white parents are towards to their children that it would be such a disgrace to lie to his son as he reason out because he believes that dealing with reality is better than false optimism. When he was asked by the host a`bout hope and that he’d knew that the American dream is no longer a dream. For this reason, he describes his fear and how he saw fear in their neighborhood in Baltimore and quoted “Childhood in Baltimore was being “naked before the elements of the world, before all the guns, fists, knives, crack, rape, and disease” (page 17) that their clothes and behavior asserted their attempts to control themselves. He also describes their fear of wars and in the music, fear in words and hard gazes as well as how he felt his father’s fear when he was beaten with a belt. He also said that one time, when he slipped away at a playground his father said it would be him that beat him or it would be the police and the law would not protect him. Coats said that he understands harsh physical punishments behind black parents and like the reason on how they subjecting their children to, but he is not sure if it is effective in keeping them out of trouble and that beating their children doesn’t automatically mean that they don’t love them, but the children still end up wrongly afraid of their parents. He point out that all the cause of authority that should make them feel safe and protected are the ones who are aggressive towards to the black children and as a result, mostly of them imprisoned by the danger that was created by their own fear.