In a series of papers directed towards his son, Coates discusses the issue of race in America and its impact on American history. He argues that black individuals have often faced suffering as a result, using personal experiences and historical events such as his time at Howard University and the Civil War to pose thought-provoking questions relevant to contemporary society. In this concise journal, he asserts that tragic cases like Michael Brown, Troy Martin, and victims in South Carolina are direct outcomes of a deliberate system designed to oppress black people. This system includes slavery, mass incarceration, and police brutality as integral components. Coates effectively reveals the dark history of black oppression in America by fervently exploring the concept of race itself and emphasizing the significance of the Black Lives Matter movement.
This book is applicable to teenagers who have faced discrimination and those who are familiar wi
...th recent news about violence against minority groups. Its content centers on the mistreatment that black people have endured in white educational institutions.
Find employment
The author emphasizes the challenges black individuals often face in finding good job opportunities, as they tend to remain at the lower end of the job market. Despite many businesses that once employed black individuals closing down, the author reveals a disturbing truth: employers prefer hiring white individuals with criminal records over black individuals with clean records.
The author emphasizes the disparity in unemployment rates between black individuals, especially black men, and their white counterparts. Additionally, black people often face racial isolation and reside in neglected neighborhoods lacking public transportation, supermarkets, and sometimes even healthcare facilities. Similarly, Latinos who owned homes experienced property seizures during the
subprime mortgage crisis, resulting in a significant loss of wealth for ethnic minorities.
Regarding health services
The author highlights that infant mortality rates among black infants are comparable to those seen in developing countries like Malaysia. African-Americans as a whole have higher rates of HIV infection. The author also shares personal stories about relatives who succumbed to HIV or other unforeseen circumstances.
The healthcare disparities are so significant that one former U.S. Surgeon General recently stated, "If we had eliminated health disparities in the last century, there would have been 85,000 fewer black deaths overall."
Education
According to the book's author, schools are currently more segregated than they were in the 1960s. Urban centers, particularly schools with predominantly black students, receive inadequate resources and are designed for failure. These schools now resemble prisons with metal detectors and uniformed police officers conducting searches as students enter their classrooms.
Regularly, schools in less affluent areas spend about half the amount of money per student compared to those in wealthier areas.
In contrast, incarceration rates
The author suggests that there is a significant increase in the number of incarcerated Black individuals. This increase has been nearly tenfold and has led to a rapid growth in the proportion of Black prisoners compared to White prisoners within a short period of time. Recent research emphasizes that "a young African American without a high school diploma has a high likelihood of being incarcerated before reaching the age of 35." All of these factors reinforce pervasive racism present in media, cultural, and political spheres, perpetuating stereotypes and hindering the potential of every African American child.
In addition, the text emphasizes the rise in occurrences of noose hangings nationwide, which symbolize racial
tension and oppression. These incidents involve the targeting of six African-American youths who resisted a noose hung to intimidate them from sitting beneath a tree assigned for white students. The author criticizes the government's reaction, which demonstrates a history of mistreatment towards black individuals. This mistreatment persists today, leaving African-Americans without resources to overcome resulting difficulties, such as negligence of levees in certain areas. The government's response to the crisis in these regions goes beyond mere incompetence; it encompasses both suppression and deadly indifference towards black citizens. Consequently, people are stranded on rooftops for extended periods under scorching heat with no access to sustenance or hydration.
Detainees experienced life-threatening conditions in their cells, as the water level rose up to their necks. The prioritization of safeguarding black people's belongings and maintaining social control overshadowed basic human rights and preservation of life. The head of the American legislature directed law enforcement to mercilessly eliminate both criminals and those merely trying to survive and assist others. On at least one occasion, individuals attempting to flee the most affected areas were blocked by police at gunpoint, preventing them from reaching a safer location. When evacuations finally took place, they were executed with the cruelty reminiscent of an unsympathetic property owner. Families faced separation, with children being forcibly separated from their parents.
Throughout the nation, there were thousands of people scattered everywhere, holding only one-way tickets and sometimes unaware of their destinations. Back at home, bodies were left floating in the water or stranded on pathways, decaying and destroyed for long periods. Throughout all of this, the writer depicts politicians and commentators spewing relentless bigotry. One cannot forget the African Americans
who had to fend for themselves, a mother's comment in a shelter for displaced individuals from various states, separated from their families and forbidden from reuniting with them, having lost everything, including loved ones. Many people in the affected areas – already underprivileged – viewed this situation as advantageous for them. The term Congressman earned its reputation by declaring, "We have finally solved the issue of public housing in certain states."
Despite our inability to accomplish it, God provides support for the black community. Since then, black commemorations in various parts of the country continue to highlight the appalling conditions in ghost towns. In the predominantly black Ninth Ward, demolished houses have transformed into an expansive wasteland, scattered with occasional heavy footsteps that lead nowhere. Whenever black individuals have fought to remain in livable housing projects, they have been forcibly evicted. Furthermore, if they have voiced their grievances at City Council, they have been violently expelled and subjected to physical abuse.
According to the author, essential services such as schools, hospitals, and childcare centers are being neglected, while resources are being directed towards oil apparatuses and visitor zones. The presence of law enforcement and national guards in impoverished neighborhoods further exacerbates the oppression experienced by these communities. The author communicates these injustices to his son, warning him that whites do not perceive blacks as equals and often fail to acknowledge their achievements and contributions.
The African Americans are subjected to severe brutality both by the government and the police, and they also face segregation in various aspects of life in America.
References
- Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the world and me. Text publishing, 2015
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