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mildlypretentiousreader's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
Coates' frames Between the World and Me as a sweeping letter to his son about being black in America. As such, the book is intensely personal, an intimate look at the grief, pain, anger, joy, bitterness, and fears intrinsic to the Struggle. Much of Part One focuses on this juxtaposition, that between the delusions of the Dreamers, who need there to be a black race so that themselves can be white, and the constant fear that consumes those outside the Dream--namely, those who live in daily fear of losing their bodies.
Coates' outlining of his own experiences, from his childhood in Baltimore trapped between the schools and the streets, to his coming of age in the "Mecca" of Howard University, to his careful confrontation and deconstruction of his own illusions, to his constant presence and consciousness within the struggle, is deeply profound and extraordinarily articulate. I particularly enjoyed his examination of history and its role in our lives and in the fight, particularly as he confronts his own African heritage while at Howard: "Being black does not immunize us from history's logic or the lure of the dream...My history professors thought nothing of telling me that my search for myth was doomed, that the stories I wanted to tell myself could not be matched to truths. Indeed, they felt it their duty to disabuse me of my weaponized history." Equally compelling are Coates' contemplations on religion and atheism, and his discussion of the psychology behind the creation and institutionalization of race, and the ways in which a warped desire to belong to a powerful and exclusive club doesn't begin and end with race, but underlies the "othering" of any number of people and groups for any number of reasons. As Coates' confronts his own biases, he is demanding that all of us similarly confront ours.
Part three, however, was perhaps my favorite part of the book. Here, Coates' meets with the mother of an old college acquaintance who has been shot to death by the police. In what is perhaps the most emotional segment of the book, Coates manages to leave the reader breathless. His conversation with Prince Jones' resolute, steadfast mother is profound, but it is the final reflections it prompts from Coates to his son that left me most moved. Coates' message is not necessarily a call to action. There isn't, in fact, any plan set forth at the end of the book to actively drive readers into the struggle and see it through to the other side. Coates knows his son will be within the struggle all of his life. All he seeks is to help him find a way to "live within the all of it," to live beyond the chance that Dreamers will awaken, and to find meaning in that life. The book is not a neatly outlined plan for activism but a broader plea to continue to strive to be a conscious citizen of the world.
Coates' outlining of his own experiences, from his childhood in Baltimore trapped between the schools and the streets, to his coming of age in the "Mecca" of Howard University, to his careful confrontation and deconstruction of his own illusions, to his constant presence and consciousness within the struggle, is deeply profound and extraordinarily articulate. I particularly enjoyed his examination of history and its role in our lives and in the fight, particularly as he confronts his own African heritage while at Howard: "Being black does not immunize us from history's logic or the lure of the dream...My history professors thought nothing of telling me that my search for myth was doomed, that the stories I wanted to tell myself could not be matched to truths. Indeed, they felt it their duty to disabuse me of my weaponized history." Equally compelling are Coates' contemplations on religion and atheism, and his discussion of the psychology behind the creation and institutionalization of race, and the ways in which a warped desire to belong to a powerful and exclusive club doesn't begin and end with race, but underlies the "othering" of any number of people and groups for any number of reasons. As Coates' confronts his own biases, he is demanding that all of us similarly confront ours.
Part three, however, was perhaps my favorite part of the book. Here, Coates' meets with the mother of an old college acquaintance who has been shot to death by the police. In what is perhaps the most emotional segment of the book, Coates manages to leave the reader breathless. His conversation with Prince Jones' resolute, steadfast mother is profound, but it is the final reflections it prompts from Coates to his son that left me most moved. Coates' message is not necessarily a call to action. There isn't, in fact, any plan set forth at the end of the book to actively drive readers into the struggle and see it through to the other side. Coates knows his son will be within the struggle all of his life. All he seeks is to help him find a way to "live within the all of it," to live beyond the chance that Dreamers will awaken, and to find meaning in that life. The book is not a neatly outlined plan for activism but a broader plea to continue to strive to be a conscious citizen of the world.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Transphobia, and Homophobia
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