Coates' Description of The Dream in Between The World and Me

Introduction to Ta-Nehisi Coates and The Dream

Ta-Nehisi Coates’ astir and ruminative book, Between the World and Me, is both personal and political, and the autobiographical account simulates an early twenty-first century letter to the author’s teenage son. Coates employs the text as an explanatory mechanism that reiterates various conversations with his son. In it, Coates tries to better understand and conceptualize the Dream, previously known as the American Dream in the text, by contrasting his own understanding and meaning-making with that of his teenage son. During his writing as well as during his interactions with his son and readers, Coates repeatedly validates dreams of the dream, sometimes units of The Dream, American Dream, and his dreamed-of Dream, baselessly replete in almost every chapter.

Focusing mindfully on The Dream throughout the book because it is difficult to “break up with [The Dream],” Coates finds himself pondering whether “America, too, is a frightful Dream and whether co-opting a country enslaved its newcomers and then threw the yoke of criminality upon them. United States citizens love the Dreamers too much, and they love to subdue and delude them by riding on our dream probabilities. America hates Coates’ dreamed-of Dream, and their hatred has robbed it of all strength and tricked it into imperceptibility. The divide of perceptions lays a foundation of moral absolutes that none of us can reach across, conflate, and compromise or coin a mirrored Dream truce between.

The Concept of The Dream in Between The World and Me

Durwayn Coates defines "the Dream" as the spoken vector to be feared. In the beginning of this book, his mother tells him to be "smart" and "beware." She tells him he must carry the fear of the Dream and always "move like a phantom" in this society. Coates defines the Dream by citing a series of examples of police brutality and white privilege. He sees himself as an advisor to his son on the code of conduct of the Dream. He tells his son that the Dreamers are ruining the world and that he must not feel owned by them.

In this work, the author shares a raw and unapologetically honest recounting of the racial history of Blacks in America. Told in the form of a letter to his teenage son, this book graphically describes what it means to live in a Black body and to face racial threats on a continuous basis. The author tells his son he must always be aware of the Dreamers, who assume the Dream, and always be cautious. He sees the Dreamers as having no respect for him and for his body. They see themselves as essential to the world, and themselves as the creators of "civilization."

Critical Analysis of Coates' Description of The Dream

What should you do when a story that has been lived by millions does not exist in the narratives being told by those who lived that story? This is the question posed by Kiese Laymon in his review of a work. We use a critical reading to argue that it is not necessarily the explicit omission of some aspects of Black American life from 'The Dream' that is problematic, but rather the fact that there are millions of other dreams that are left out. In a notable book, a concept is introduced that refers to ‘The Dream,’ which is an American fallacy of equal opportunity, freedom, justice, and democracy, all components of what is called ‘The American Dream.’

Most of the existing literature about ‘The Dream’ focuses on its general societal effects and references to particular individuals. This paper is a critical analysis and interpretation of The Dream. In this paper, we argue that one of the bigger forms of violence against the African American race is the fact that they are continuously forced to defer the true lives lived to the dream. All the oppressions and persecutions heaped on them are presented as obscurities in their strive towards the dream. What is often forgotten is the numerous counter-dreams. These other dreams, too, are the dreams and realities of human beings. What, then, should a Black youth do in America, a country enthralled by its dream?

Impact and Relevance of The Dream in Contemporary Society

The narrative offered is an honest assessment of American society. It is definitely a bombshell in the face of open critics who take advantage of every little opportunity to bash America. Even the most popular detractors chose to settle on American romanticism without poking their portrayals of capitalist America, a country of nations, rather than individuals. The author should be commended for the enormous courage to speak as honestly as he terrorizes all sides of America’s racial divide. The fact that his viewpoints and experiences have such a chilling impact on some makes his stance all the more remarkable. Growing up in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s, I was fortunate to be exposed to the ideas behind the “Dream of Golden Country” as early as in the writings of others.

The “Dream of Golden Country” is crazy. It can’t possibly materialize in a world populated by humans. At best, it is the utopian gum built into the system by a combination of the forefathers’ religious background and their system’s emphasis on the survival of the fittest, play hard or play fair gung ho capitalist Rica with the “get ahead” opportunity. Sure, from time to time and in its actual workings, especially when it is tested by those negative demons that live in the heart of all humans and are part of our psychological and intellectual make-up, the Dream takes a beating. The fact that it continues to survive, however, is testimony to the idea that by building and rebuilding a capitalist system based on national survival and respect for the divine and natural rights of a free people, the “goodness of the dream” could triumph in the end. This muscular and utopian strength is probably also why the Africentric snobbishness of the bad character in a popular movie has never, together destroyed the majority of our world’s systems. The “dream of golden country” continues its flow. This is the very problem that continues to clash at the heart of America.

Conclusion and Future Directions for Research

Some work leading up to the ways that communication scholars might approach a description of “The Dream” has been laid forth by cultural studies scholars. A precursor to this work can be seen in cultural studies endeavors to examine critical race theory in rhetorical studies through various scholars. These endeavors have sought a broader conceptual understanding of race that moves away from biological definitions, recognition that race is a key aspect of societal structure, and engagement in post-positivist theorizing. Not only do these scholars draw upon the work of sociological race theorists and other scholarship from specific racial/ethnic/cultural theorists within the field of Communication, but their examination of the relationship between race and communication moves away from an approach that is overly focused on individual-level experiences. The attentive reader might notice a family resemblance between this approach to key elements associated with critical race, as well as a description of “The Dream.”

The critical approaches shared or explored by this work are instrumental in offering central premises that might inform the ways we read the text. These findings are preliminary and call for more work about, yet offer fascinating ways that we might come to understand the concept of dream. As such, this essay is but the tiniest of beginnings to exploring possible approaches that communication scholars might take in thinking, composing, and creating new work around the portrayal of The Dream. There are more than likely different pathways that scholars might venture along, and countless additional approaches that have yet to be published in the written form. However, there are also a number of curious connections that communication scholars can make between the concept of dream and our own research, as well as our conceptions of race and rights/access to citizenship. As cultural studies scholars and critical researchers, a good deal of the work that we do circulates around these facets of civil rights and action.