Status Updates From Zwischen mir und der Welt

“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.”

Coates conveys the difficulties of raising a Black child in a way that speaks to my own personal fears surrounding parenthood, without crippling them with fear. I love how he presents a dichotomy: Black life in America as opposed to Black life abroad (specifically France). In the only experience I have ever had outside the US, I felt the same way he did: as if I belonged there, as if I was supposed to be there.