Writing to his teenage son, Samori, Ta-Nehisi Coates tries to provide an answer to what he describes as the question of his life: \u201chow one should live within a black body, within a country lost in the Dream.\u201d The Dream is the mistaken, exclusionary belief of white people that they are white, which, Coates asserts, is not a skin color or race, but, rather, a \u201csyndicate arrayed to protect its exclusive power to dominate and control our bodies\u2026. The power of domination and exclusion is central to the belief in being white.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coates\u2019 answer to his central question is extremely pessimistic. We may have elected a black president twice, but the murders of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner, among many others, remind us that it is far too soon to start celebrating. Coates argues that the Dreamers have deliberately forgotten the horror of the slavery upon which their lives are built, and he counsels his son not to depend on them waking up. Indeed, Coates feels that it will never<\/em> be time to celebrate. \u201cOur triumphs can never redeem this [history of subjugation].\u201d Racial injustice is too deeply embedded in the social fabric of America. I think Coates would say that racial injustice is<\/em> the social fabric of America. All that a black person can do is struggle and try to take satisfaction in the struggle. \u201cThe struggle is really all I have for you,\u201d he tells his son, \u201cbecause it is the only portion of the world under your control.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the most compelling aspects of Coates\u2019 writing is the physicality of it. \u201c[R]acism is a visceral experience,\u2026it dislodges brains, blocks airways, rips muscle, extracts organs, cracks bones, breaks teeth.\u201d In an often quoted passage, Coates tells his son: \u201cHere is what I would like for you to know: In America, it is tradition to destroy the black body\u2014it is heritage.\u201d This physicality makes \u201cracism,\u201d often discussed at a very abstract level, concrete in a wrenching way. Coates tells his son that the police have been given the authority to destroy black bodies, and he describes being stopped in his car by the police, for no apparent reason, and realizing that he could die, that the police could kill him for no reason and almost certainly not be held accountable for his death.<\/p>\n Books that change the way you think are uncommon. This has been such a book for me. In a way, though, it is inaccurate to say that it has changed the way I think. It has, rather, taken apart my thoughts on issues of race in our society. I\u2019m currently in the process of putting them back together.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Writing to his teenage son, Samori, Ta-Nehisi Coates tries to provide an answer to what he describes as the question of his life: \u201chow one should live within a black body, within a country lost in the Dream.\u201d The Dream is the mistaken, exclusionary belief of white people that they are white, which, Coates asserts, … <\/p>\n