Read and answer the questions
Please read the excerpt from Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book, Between the World and Me (link is below). The book is written in the form of a letter from Coates to his then 15 yr old son, Samori Coates. Coates himself grew up in the tough neighborhoods of West Baltimore. He met his wife, Kenyatta, at Howard College. Today, his son Samori Coates, is Vice-President of New York Labs. Coates himself worked many years with various leading newspapers as a journalist and writer. Today, he is a full-time writer.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/tanehisi-coates-between-the-world-and-me/397619/
Please answer ALL these questions in your discussion post. Each question must be answered in at least one full paragraph of 4+ sentences.
1. Between the World and Me has been called a book about race, but the author argues that race itself is a flawed, if not useless, concept—it is, if anything, nothing more than a pretext for racism. Early in the book he writes, “Race, is the child of racism, not the father.” What does he mean by this?
2. Fear is palpably described in the book’s opening section and shapes much of Coates’s sense of himself and the world. “When I was your age,” Coates writes to his son, “the only people I knew were black, and all of them were powerfully, adamantly, dangerously afraid.” How did this fear inform and distort Coates’s life and way of looking at the world? Is this kind of fear inevitable? Can you relate to his experience? Why or why not?
3. The book, and therefore the short piece you read, is written in the form of a letter. Why do you think Coates chose this method of delivery?
4. Do you think this reading leaves us with hope for race relations in America? Why or why not? Do you think “hope” was what Coates was trying to convey to readers? If not, what are you left with at the end of the book? If so, hope in what?
