The Bookworm says... Yes. Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of the most brilliant pieces of literature I have read in some time. Coates, in an open letter to his fifteen-year-old son Samori, examines the concept and history of race in America. In a thorough examination of events both during his lifetime and before, including the lives and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, his own time at Howard University, and the deaths of Mike Brown, Trayvon Martin, and of other black men near and dear to his heart, Coates presents a detailed analysis of the systemic oppression and destruction of black bodies throughout American history. He constantly poses questions, some rhetorical, and some that he goes on to answer through research and experience. Coates admits multiple times that he does not know the answers to many of the questions he has to ask, nor the answers to those that his son may go on to ask; however, he still leaves his son with some of the most poignant advice one could give.
Coates writes this short, magnificent collection of essays full of powerful advice as an open letter to his son, but this advice will guide all young people and adults in their understanding of race and racism in America. Those who experience racism firsthand and those who merely observe can benefit from reading Between The World And Me- as Coates writes, "The Dreamers will have to learn to struggle themselves, to understand that the field for their Dream, the stage where they have painted themselves white, is the deathbed of us all". Perhaps this can be the first step.
"And so there was, all about her, a knowledge of cosmic injustices, the same knowledge I'd glimpsed all those years ago watching my father reach for his belt, watching the suburban dispatches in my living room, watching the golden-haired boys with their toy trucks and football cards, and dimly perceiving the great barrier between the world and me".