by Hermene Hartman __“I tell you now that the question of how one should live within a black body, within a country lost in the Dream, is the ques

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by Hermene Hartman

__“I tell you now that the question of how one should live within a black body, within a country lost in the Dream, is the question of my life, and the pursuit of this question, I have found, ultimately answers itself. “_

Ta-Nehisi Coats. has written a classic book for the times, Between The World and Me. I watched an interview with Charlie Rose and Rose, said it was a must read, and indeed it is. The book is astute. It is for our time. It is an essay, akin to James Baldwin’s, The Fire Next Time. He is a writer of the first order, analytic prose is his signature. I read the book in one sitting, unable to put it down, compelled by the art of his writing and the truth. Coats is a national correspondent for The Atlantic.

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“ Our world is physical. Learn to play defense—ignore the head and keep your eyes on the body.”_

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He writes about race . . .

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Ta-Nehisi Coates.

He writes about race. His book is about race in America now and how a young Black man interprets its trials and tribulations. He writes a letter to his teenage son. He writes about fear, fear that Black people have become accustomed to. He writes about holding on to your children and wanting them to have a greater freedom. He writes about his grandmother holding his hand tight and his father whipping him. He didn’t fully understand, until he had his own child. He writes for his generation, but he speaks volumes to all of us, no matter the era of your coming of age. He writes about his wife, her essence for him, opening a greater path of Freedom, introducing him to the doors of Paris that he was afraid to experience, because it was unknown. He tells his journey on becoming a writer. He has arrived, learning his lessons well.

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The Mecca . . .

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He himself grew up positively being Black. He knew from his parents, and grandparents that school was important, but more important than school was intelligence. He knew the streets that he had to live on to survive. He was not confused. He grew up in Baltimore in the 80's.

His father was a Panther, Coats attended Howard University and talked about the spectrum of Blackness in the Mecca from hair to skin color to philosophy. He talks about being wounded. He talks about his son growing up with a Black man in the White House and what that will mean to his psychic. He talks about the casual murders of Black men that are becoming too common via police routine stops.

He talks about the black body. . .

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He talks about his friend, who was upper middle class. He knew the better things of life. He came from a well-educated professional, higher income home. His mother was a doctor. He was well to do and had opportunity to attend Harvard, Yale, Stanford, but choose Howard. He was dapper, intelligent and was the guy who did everything not only right, but also correct. He was well liked, well received in all quarters. He was an achiever. He talks about his friend whose destiny was success stamped. He was killed by a policeman when he should not have been. The policemen justified his death by saying that he was trying to run him over with his jeep. He was killed because he was a Black male. He talked about visiting his friend’s mother, the doctor and hearing her heart about her late son without crying, with a blank face, like she was confronting racism, in spite of all of the American rightness. He talks about the investment poured into that child, to make him somebody without question. He gives us the life of Prince Jones as it should have been, but his blackness got in his way as he was becoming. He talks about the killing fields of Chicago of Baltimore and what the phrase ‘black on black crime’ means “to shoot a man and then shame him for bleeding.”

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He talks about the Black body. He addresses the legacy of plunder. He talks about when Black people are killed on the street, how there is no responsibility for the death, even when the murderer is obvious. He talks about how policemen are set free and get their pensions usually to return to the street.
He talks about “In America, it is tradition to destroy the black body—it is heritage. He talks about, “in the era of mass lynching, it was so difficult to find, who, specifically, served as executioner that such deaths were often reported by the press as having happened ‘at the hands of persons unknown.” He talks about how Black people lose “softness.” He discusses the dream and the dreamers connected to the fear. He talks about the “firsts.” He talks about what middle class black parents and teachers teach their children on” being better. " ” He talks about his admiration of Malcolm because he never lied. He says Malcolm lived “beyond the fear.”

His writing is neither militant nor moderate. It is. Coats is profound and unapologetic. He is reflective. He analyzes. His viewpoint arouses. He is intellectually honest. He is real. Read this book. It is a must. It is a crossover. Mr. Coats has started the race conversation that needs to occur. Mr. Coats is moving to Paris for a year with his family.

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