“This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.”
In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?
Between the World and Me is …
“This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.”
In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?
Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.
"Race is the child of racism, not the father." - Ta-Nehisi Coates, from Between the World and Me, which was book #7 in my 2022 journey of reading books that have been challenged or removed from Texas libraries or schools.
The antilibrarians feign concern for reader "DISCOMFORT." But to me, the readers who find most discomfort in Coates or Kendi will be those whose starting-place was that of TAKING COMFORT in (their belief in) their own "whiteness."
This book punched me in the gut. Repeatedly. "Race is the child of racism, not the father" (p. 7). I'd read a few pages, then set the book aside to rest my mind and let my heart heal. I'd always pick it back up, savoring its eloquence while smarting from its candor. I'd find myself simultaneously marveling and wincing. As I write this in 2020, our cities roil from peaceful protests and rioting. As a country, we grapple with our past, present, and future. Our West coast burns. We fight about masks, about the seriousness of COVID-19, about whether black lives or blue lives matter. We shout our viewpoints and unfollow those who view differently. Instead, we should talk less and listen more. Understand our shared humanity, the artificial notion of "race," the reality that our realities aren't universal. Realize that each person is "a particular [person] . . . …
This book punched me in the gut. Repeatedly. "Race is the child of racism, not the father" (p. 7). I'd read a few pages, then set the book aside to rest my mind and let my heart heal. I'd always pick it back up, savoring its eloquence while smarting from its candor. I'd find myself simultaneously marveling and wincing. As I write this in 2020, our cities roil from peaceful protests and rioting. As a country, we grapple with our past, present, and future. Our West coast burns. We fight about masks, about the seriousness of COVID-19, about whether black lives or blue lives matter. We shout our viewpoints and unfollow those who view differently. Instead, we should talk less and listen more. Understand our shared humanity, the artificial notion of "race," the reality that our realities aren't universal. Realize that each person is "a particular [person] . . . whose mind is active as your own, whose range of feeling is as vast as your own" (p. 69). Coates describes a reality that isn't mine, and I listened and learned. As much as it hurt, I'm glad I did.
Review of 'Between the World and Me' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
I don't know that I can add anything that hasn't already been said by just about any of the reviews I've seen about this book.
The author's voice - both written and spoken - is clear and authentic and powerful. As a white woman who grew up in a racial diverse family in a racially diverse area, there were some things in the book that I absolutely recognized but even more that I'll never experience. I highly recommend this book to everyone.
Between the World and Me is a beautifully penned memoir-letter intended for the author's son, but also profound and meaningful for others, as well. Ta-Nehisi Coates has attempted to communicate what is was like for him to grow up as an African American male in this country during a certain time and how his feelings have been informed by his experiences and his knowledge of history. I found it informative and unforgettable.
I would recommend this to absolutely anyone; it's an important work.
Review of 'Between the World and Me' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Beautiful... tragic and kind. Written in poetic prose this letter to the author's 15 year old son is as near perfect to its purpose as I can imagine. This is required reading for everyone.
