Between the World and Me

It is a view into another world and culture. When you reside or grow up in cosmopolitan cultures like those of the Arabian Gulf, it is hard to know the kinds of lifelong fears and doubts that many African Americans experience from a young age.

Nice book. Well written and very relatable.

Excelente

A book I finished reading with abated breath. This might be your first hand experience of the 'black world' and their myriad oppresions. The events in the book are narrated with a rare vividity possible only to gifted writers. Its arguments are so compulsive that you will find yourself closing the book and entering a lot of relflection. Read it with an urgency that you can't postpone to tomorrow because it helps you understand the world a lot better and its hidden realities.

The author writes a letter to his son in order to show how his social environment, education and family background have influenced him, how all this history and memory around have shaped his personality and character, how it is to grown up in America being part of social minority. Coates describes the fear, the discrimination, the prejudgment because of belonging to a minority (Afro-American) in the US. He writes also about how unfair the rule “you have to be twice as good” is, because this rule is a justification of the way things are and make people think it is their own fault, they are guilty in some way. But these thoughts could be applied to any western society or any social group; the quote people who think they are white” is not only a reference to a book american classic, it is also a reference about how much we guilt ourselves for not getting what we fight for. We may believe many times it is our own fault, we may think maybe if we do it better next time we will get there, maybe the future will be different for us if we improve, maybe our children will get there if they are better than we are… and we justify and accept the status quo of the present situation. You may be white, like I am, but maybe you are from a small town, trying to get thought a career in a big city; maybe your parents did not go to university and you feel you are not well accepted in some educated groups, maybe you start a small business, a professional such as lawyer or architect and you are not into some social elite groups, lobbies or economic establishment groups of any level, and you feel you have not the same success some others do because they got there some decades or centuries before… maybe you think you are white, but the truth is you are not. Power and social elites discriminate us all. He describes the social dysfunctions that he has learned and his fears about them. Fears about their prevalence over time, about they can influence his son’s condition him and about how telling them or not, may how determine his existence. I am a 45 year old, white (well I mean I think I am white), European citizen who lives far away from that environment and society. However I believe this book is not about America’s racial discrimination, it is about the lack of implementation of our western values in any democratic country around the world. English is not my mother tongue and I am not familiar with some characters and references, such as leaders, characters and civil rights activists that are mentioned in the book. However I believe most of the message of the book could be applied to any social rights movement, to any social, gender, sexual orientation discrimination in any western country. Besides the author's pessimism about change or about the future, the book is full of love, fatherhood guidance, acceptance of difference, respect, hope and tolerance for the values that he is claiming for: we were all created equal.

I admit I have read very little so far, concerning the issues people of color are facing worldwide and in the US specifically. This is not fiction, yet quite gripping. It's a good starting pointo to dicover a whole new world of emotions. I'll recommend this to anyone interested in understanding.

Let me start off by saying that Toni Morrison has said, this book is required reading. So get yourself a copy! It's necessary reading for the current climate that we are in that is only portraying a single, skewed narrative and on the same side of that coin damaging and manipulating a narrative that needs to be heard. As you may know, this book speaks about race in America, starting from the days of slavery till now, to provide us with this viewpoint that makes the reader understand ‘what it is like to inhabit a black body.’ It's almost like a personal diary from Coates to his son explaining how it is we have come to the state we are in, and to offer consolation to his son through it. This is such a beautifully written book. I love that the author was able to write with such clarity that enabled the reader to really be put in a black person's shoes. To understand their culture and to comprehend that the root cause of it all is fear that is driving these people forward as it is their only means of survival. Terrifying fear where your guard is up 24/8 because you know that as soon as you step out into that world you have a target, set and ready, on your back, which translates to a harshness and power within an individual that is at its essence, fear. And Coates lets the reader (and his son) view this fear through his eyes, his upbringing and experiences and understanding of the world. I was just on the constant verge of tears, whether it was out of anger or sadness, because what else are you meant to feel when you know that a specific group of people are completely broken down due to the colour of their skin? Yet, he speaks on understanding the 'white’ mentality. This book is full of empathy, it seeps out of every word, every sentence that is constructed He speaks on identity, the social construct of races, the all American Dream that is a facade and build on the back of slavery, police brutality and the concept of whiteness. It's not all doom and gloom. There is hope, there has to be and he shares beautiful moments in his life where barriers within himself are broken and clarity poured in, that the world is much more than America and its toxic narrative/lifestyle and the simple wonders of life that we take for granted. I know that this is a book that I'll casually flick through every now again. I've filled it with my thoughts, which I'll probably have to add to as my perspective of this world changes and my own understanding grows. It was truly an an eye-opening read. I feel invigorated and my mind is more curious, hungry and eager to find out more.