Play Book Tag discussion

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates - 4 stars - My Review

This book is a memoir in the form of a letter to the author’s teenage son. Coates provides his perspective about what it means to have a black body in the United States. He believes that the desire to hate requires an “other” perceived as inferior. He goes into the history of how this perspective originated in slavery and its follow-on effects in today’s society.

The book is structured in three parts. The first describes his childhood, his college years at Howard University, and how his views on race have changed over time. The second covers the killing of Prince Jones, one of his classmates at Howard, by police. The third describes Coates’ visit to Prince Jones’ mother, Dr. Mable Jones.

This book discusses violence, fear, and the gap in the American Dream. It gets at the crux of Black Lives Matter. The writing is eloquent and filled with literary and musical references. I found it enlightening and moving.