Different intellectual and scholar have shed light on history, whereas revealing about various facts and figures of human life. In this regard, the history of America is complete of different human-centric events, especially when it comes to African American people and the overwhelming conditions of life for black people of America.
About Book :
The book named “Between the world and me,” is one of the autobiographical interpretations by Ta-Nehisi Coates who wrote this book like a long letter to his son, Samori, who is fifteen years old at the time of the release of the book.
The author has divided the book into three parts, whereas mainly focusing on the historical issue of racism to shed light on the contemporary outlook of America, following a long racist attitude against the black community. Therefore, the author has concluded that black people have to struggle against white supremacy always and forever.
Between the world and me summary part 1:`
In the first part of the book, Coates has tried to convey his deep thoughts and direct observations based on his life experiences like a young boy developing in the streets of Baltimore, while knowing about various streets codes to survive safely, but Coates never accepted any.
According to the author, developing in Baltimore, as a black person, simply means to develop up marginalized and poor and being worried about other’s humanity. In a broader sense, it would not be wrong to say that the author revealed one of the harsh realities of being black in America, whereas offering his personal account to link the issue of racism with the authors’ black identity.
The intention of Coates behind sharing his personal experiences as a young developing black individual is to simply aware the reader about the fear that racism has been offering to the black community in the history of America.
Also, Coates tried to construct an image of African-American family and heritage, while going through fears and violence that has been part of the white American life. However, Coates successfully took himself away from the overwhelming conditions of Baltimore while getting enrolled himself at Howard University so that he can know and learn about black life through historical intellectuals and their writings.
Experiences And Narrative:
However, the learning at Howard University was not proved beneficial for Coates, as a student of black history. In fact, the author claims that he learned more about black people and their historical development through people who were closed to him like aunts and uncles of his son, Samori.
Coates himself reveals that the experiences and narrative, shared through people who lived close to him, were more influential and formative than the extensive readings and learning that took place at the university. Therefore, in the first part, Coates points towards the African-American family and heritage as his main focus. In fact, by the term family, Coates not only means his relatives but the black community as a whole.
He tried to show readers that history has never given a chance to black families so that they can raise their children out of the fear of being black or people of race. He also points that African-American family and heritage have been a dream for blacks due to which black people are still facing family issues and, thus, the development of the black community is still under white supremacy and threat.
Between the world and me summary part 2 :
In addition, in the second part of the book “between the world and me,” Coates further explores the issue of racism in contemporary America. After the birth of the authors’ son, Samori, the fear of being black is further developed in the personality of Coates. Here, in this part, the author points towards black bodies as another theme of his book.
Also, Coates linked with the theme of black bodies with violence, captivity, and death as well. In the past, as the author claimed black people were always treated unequally and unjustly, just by means of the fact that they were all so-called black bodies’ people. However, the author reveals that white supremacy is still practicing unjust means of conduct towards black bodies’ people of America.
Claim Proof:
To prove his claim, Coates offered the example of the death of a few black individuals. For example, when Coates was at Howard University he heard about the killing of Prince Jones, one of the class fellows of Coates. Jones was killed by police in a certain situation where the killing of Jones was not even expected.
Through the incident of the death of a young black individual, Prince Jones, clearly declare that it was not the police officer who killed Jones, but a clear racist behavior and belief about the black community and that death of Prince Jones is clearly the direct expression of that inhuman American belief system about people of black bodies.
Last but not least, in the third part, Coates tried to shed light on reality and myth, revolving around the notion of American racism. In this regard, Coates visited the mother of Prince Jones and that was the moment when Coates realized that reality is much more different than the myth about black racism.
When he visited Jones’ mother, he became aware of the fact that Jones’ mother is one of the eyewitnesses of white supremacy and that she was completely aware of the issue of racism.
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