Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

 Image

Justification
I chose Between the World and Me for the National Book Award Winner requirement because I recently read James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time. I thought it would be an excellent choice, as I read more fiction than non-fiction and wanted to broaden my non-fiction selections.

Response

(b) In no way can Coats ever make any of the things he writes in Between the World and Me make sense. In no way should they ever make sense. The Black experience is persistently violated in ways that I can never understand. Especially when he writes about the death of Prince Jones at the hands of a Prince George County police officer. He talks about how one would think that a wealthy community of Black people would be safe, but instead, the police were just as corrupt and just as violent. He writes "All my life, I'd heard people tell their black boys and girls to be "twice as good," which is to say "accept half as much" (Coats, 2015). This emphasizes the fears parents have for their children in a way I will never experience and can only imagine as a teacher. While a woman who is white is not the intended audience, Coats provides insights in his essay/letter to his son that made me realize that systematic racism has more layers than I initially thought, and is infinitely more intricate than ugly people spouting racist rhetoric (which is what I was taught racism is as a young person). Coats gives the reader such a deep view into his fears for his child, his fears for his family, for his friends that they cannot help but understand how every aspect of America and the "Dream" seeps with white privilege. 

Coats writes "Americans deify democracy in a way that allows for a dim awareness that they have, from time to time, stood in defiance of their God. But democracy is a forgiving God and America’s heresies—torture, theft, enslavement—are so common among individuals and nations that none can declare themselves immune" (Coats 2015). I cannot help but agree here, especially in light of the past five years. In my childhood and as a very young adult, I said the pledge and sang the anthem every time. I can no longer imagine the glorification of flags, countries, offices with a capital O. Simply put, our country has failed its citizens in that there are so many in poverty, violence against Black bodies that aren't applied to white people who commit the same or worse crimes. 

(d) Coats addresses our problems so succinctly, and I cannot help but think how much many of my colleagues could benefit from reading about his fears for his son. At the time of his writing, his son was a freshman in high school. As a high school teacher in a low-income area, I think often about the injustices my students will face. I have the privilege of knowing I do not have to worry about myself, my boyfriend, my family. But these children I have come to love so dearly... I cannot fully understand his fears, but my own are distantly related. On a campus where an alumnus died because of gang violence, where we recently had a lockdown and I was grateful for having so many remote learners... I cannot imagine reading this and not walking away realizing that my students are inherently oppressed and that I operate in a system that seeks to oppress them via a tool that supposedly lifts them out of the dregs of poverty unless "they just don't work hard enough" (sarcasm heavily applied).

(g) Upon finishing, I can imagine my parents' arguments against and disgust with Between the World and Me. They are products of trickle-down economics, refusing to see that they live in a country that cares nothing for the public services both of them provided--my mother as a teacher, my father as a prison guard (oh the audacity of this world that guarding prisoners is considered public service). They live on meager retirements, rely on Medicare to (not) pay for life-saving prescriptions, and adamantly refuse to see that religious morals do not belong in government.


Conclusion

In summary, I cannot imagine reading Between the World and Me and not changing how I teach and manage my classroom. I sit between generations that were brought up on iPads and have never seen a rotary dial and those who were of a "children should be seen and not heard" mindset. The psychology of education seems to only be just intersecting with the realities of racism and systematic oppression. I think this is a must-read for educators and a great text to include 


Citation

Coates, T. (2015). Between the World and Me. New York: One World.

Genre: Non-fiction