Between the World and Me Pg 101-125
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 his son what the world was like and to make sure that he understood how he would be treated. This is something that I found to be quite interesting because I think in general parents want to shield their kids from the world. All parents want to keep their kids from seeing the ugliness of the world for as long as they possibly can I think. However, sometimes this is not what's needed. In order to ensure that they can handle themselves as adults, it is also important that they are exposed to the cruelty of the world sometimes so they at least have some experience with it. That is what Coates wants to do to ensure that his son grows up in a way that allows him to see what he is in store for.
One final part of this section that I found to be important was when Coates starts talking about where he is at in his life now. I found this interesting because he talks about how he is not someone of great importance but what he has done with his life is something that he could never have imagined when he was a kid. I just liked this part of the story because it seems like real happiness and it is something that I think we should all make goals for. Not that we shouldn't dream of success and making our greatest fantasies come true but we need to realize that there is happiness in achieving things that we would have never expected to have done.
Within your second paragraph, you raise the point - how generally parents want to keep their child's innocence of the hurtful realities within the world but sometimes the reality is they can't in order for their child to be adequately prepared for life. Coates perspective on this, stuck out to me also. Never having been in his position, I would've assumed with all the hurt he faces, he'd want his son to be hidden from that for as long as he can, so he wouldn't have to feel this hurt/fear as a child but in fact he feels it's best for his son to understand it. I wonder if I was in the position, if I would make that same choice, it is definitely something that I would question.
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