Diversity and Inequality

 One of the parts of this section that I found to be very moving was when Coates talked about the gruesomeness behind slavery. He talks about this in order to make a point about in American "the destruction of the black body is heritage". He goes into detail about how slavery was brutal because its not easy to force someone to work and break their spirits so that they often don't try to leave. This was a very powerful portion for me because it's something I'd never really considered before. The fact that people were trained to destroy the black body like that during slavery and even years later there are still those who think they need to do so in order to protect themselves. The description of it being a heritage really stuck with me and caused me to do a lot of thinking.  Another portion that stuck out to me is when the author was talking about he did not want to keep his son in the dark about the things that were taking place in the world. He resolved to show h...

 One of the major points of this section is the author's discussion of the powerful stories of men who had been killed by the police during his life. These senseless deaths that occurred always hung around in his mind and were something that absolutely affected his state of mind. I have never really thought about just how far back that the police shootings of black people have gone. This was kind of a wake up call to me because I had only really considered a recent problem and something that I had never really considered as a problem that's been going on since before I was alive. It obviously makes sense now that I have had my eyes opened to it but I had only ever heard about shootings going back about 20 years since I have been old enough to understand these discussions. Even then they were talking about police reform and there have obviously been some major improvements in the way of police training and the tools and gear available to them. The amount of senseless deaths that...

At the beginning of this portion of the book, Coates is talking about the statistics of black males and the relationship between them dropping out of school and prison. He also talks about his own struggles with school and how so much pressure has been placed on the school system because of the stats he talked about. Coates himself did not particularly enjoy school a lot of times and did not see how learning things like the Pythagorean theorem were keeping him out of prison. When he was talking about how he felt that the schools were "drugging" them with a false morality i was kind of shocked. I myself don't always enjoy school but I have never expected anything more than what school has given me. It was different for them however as school was presented to them as a way out and a way to keep themselves safe from the streets. To them, the school was more than just a place for learning and at times that escape seems like it overshadows the learning aspect. These kids were ...

 In "Between the World and Me" the author is writing to his son and speaking on several things. Not only is he discussing his past and some of the things he experienced in his lifetime. He talks about the neighborhood he grew up in and how everyone he knew was black and they were all afraid of the world they lived in. He did not share these experiences with his son because he wanted to scare him but rather as a way to give him hope and show him that the future is his. These statements about the fear that they had really hit home with me because that is something that I have never experienced.  The author also talks about the reason he is writing this piece. He was writing it because his son was starting to get to the age where he understood things and witnessed some of the unfairness in the world that afflicted those with their body as the author describes it. I found it very powerful when he talks about how he did not want to tell his son it would all be okay when he really ...