Book Review: Between The World and Me by Ta-nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates, a journalist who looks to wake the consciousness of America to see the horrific flaws we still continue to have. Racism has always been a topic to discuss and especially for the novel “Between The World and Me” was written by Ta-Nehisi Coates is a way to express the symbolism, empathy, and the reality of being a young black male in America. Ta-Nehisi disputes the dangers and brutalities that an African American can experience due to their skin color, believing that America itself romanticize the truth about its history of slavery and act blindsided about it in the present day which results to injustice.

The subject to this matter for Ta-Nehisi was him seeing his 15-year-old son, Samori having to witness the deaths of Tamir Rice, John Crawford, Eric Garner, and Renisha McBride. Ta-Nehisi realizes that his son would have to be ready for the violence that his son might have to encounter living in America as a Black male. This kind of brutalities shocks Samori as he later finds a similar situation for a young African American kid to lose his life from the shootings of a police officer who would plead not guilty to all the charges. This upsets Samori as Ta-Nehisi is seeing his son upset and angry for the injustice that was brought. Ta-Nehisi just stands realizing that it would be meaningless to comfort his son as he explains to him that it is a question to which he cannot answer himself on to how to live in a world as a black person. Ta-Nehisi begins to mention that having discussions with family and friends was a way to sought what he was seeking himself to find the answer to his long and trivia question.

Furthermore, throughout the book Ta-Nehisi starts to mention how he won’t be able to protect his son from the world. He memorizes a time, taking Samori to a historical site from the Civil War to show his son the interesting experiences that will help him to have a better understanding of the world we live in today. Ta-Nehisi wanted to avoid the myths of America and to inform his son with the truth of what transpired in the past of many African Americans. Samori at a young age is experiencing a lot of harsh and brutal situations that his father imposes on him. Ta-Nehisi tells Samori his son to “grow into consciousness” meaning to be more responsive of what to do, what to feel, how to react, and what that reaction means to you. He ends up bringing his son to meet a mother who lost her son by the hands of a white male and the mother starts to express how vital your existence is and the value you have to others, showing Samori the right path to take in life.

What’s unique about this book is how it can relate to anyone who is Black in America. Whether you view Ta-Nehisi novel as the black American male or an exploration of the African American experiences, it puts a strong feeling to the reader on the solutions to handle matters like he and fellow other African Americans had to go against. Ta-Nehisi presented a fact for everyone in this present day of how dissimilar life is for one developing up with the label “Black” when in reality we are nothing more than just a human being.