Between the World and Me
Written as one long letter to his son, Between the World and Me is an elegant and powerful examination of race in modern America. By weaving together his own experiences growing up in Baltimore with history and theory, Coates examines what it means to live within a black body and the confines of a society built on inequality.
Quote:
“To be black in the Baltimore of my youth was to be naked before the elements of the world, before all the guns, fists, knives, crack, rape, and disease. The nakedness is not an error, nor pathology. The nakedness is the correct and intended result of policy, the predictable upshot of people forced for centuries to live under fear.”
Author:
Ta-Nehisi Coates is an American educator; journalist; and the author of Asphalt Sketches, The Beautiful Struggle, and Between the World and Me. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, he now lives in New York. In 2015, he was awarded the MacArthur Genius Grant.
Published: 2015
Length: 152 pages
Set in: Baltimore, Maryland, United States