Between the World and Ta-Nehisi Coates

I got Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates because my brother said it is a must-read. It\’s an autobiographical letter to his young son, in which Coates expresses his love and pain of being Black in America. I read it, and he\’s right.Coates shares his message through powerful, vivid imagery. His writing is so evocative that it is difficult to remain emotionally detached. The book\’s ending felt abrupt – I would have kept reading for another 200 pages if he had written them – but that is why the book has such staying power for anyone who reads it. Coates\’s words linger with me still.Between the World and Me is not an easy read and that is what makes it worthwhile. Check out some of my notes and quotes from the book:

\”race is the child of racism, not the father\”\”America understands itself as God\’s handiwork, but the black body is the clearest evidence that America is the work of men\”

\”I would hear it in Dad\’s voice – \’Either I can beat him, or the police.\’ Maybe that saved me. Maybe it didn\’t.\”

\”\’Good intention\’ is a hall pass through history, a sleeping pill that ensures the Dream.\”\”My work is to give you what I know of my own particular path while allowing you to walk your own\”\”I was made for the library, not the classroom. The classroom was a jail of other people\’s interests. The library was open, unending, free.\”\”Poetry aims for an economy of truth – loose and useless words must be discarded, and I found that these loose and useless words were not separate from loose and useless thoughts\”\”The writer…must be wary of every Dream and every nation, even his own nation\”