More often than not, I read for enjoyment. For the ability to transport myself, to get lost in the beauty of language. And sometimes I read to hear another person’s voice, another person’s story. This is one of those books.
I know that I have a lot of work to do in order to become a better ally. So I started in the place that is most familiar to me, between the pages of a book. I went into observation mode on social media after the murder of George Floyd, afraid of saying the wrong thing. That fear came from a place of not knowing. And I’m not saying that one book is going to get me closer, but one book is one small action.
Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me is a letter to his then 15 year old son about so many things, but ultimately about what it’s like to inhabit a black body as a black man in America. “And you know now, if you did not before, that the police departments of your country have been endowed with the authority to destroy your body.”
His words written in 2015 are a bittersweet oracle for the present day. “It does not matter if the destruction is the result of an unfortunate overreaction. It does not matter if it originates in a misunderstanding. It does not matter if the destruction springs from a foolish policy...the destroyers will rarely be held accountable...All of this is common to black people. And all of this is old for black people. No one is held responsible.”
Coates gave me more insight into the black experience than anything I have read before. For he gives more than his voice, he gives a glimpse into the visceral experience of being in a black body. Being subjected to so much fear, so much violence, and so much history that pre-dates his existence.
His writing is passionate, immediate, and crystal clear. The clarity and precise honesty with which he writes about the brutality of the black experience hit hardest. The pain, the injustice, the hurt, the indignities that have been put on an entire people. The pages are filled with suffering and the repeated failings of humanity.
So much of this work sits heavy on my mind. Asking more questions than I can begin to answer. I don’t know where to go from here. There is not a single solution.
Like digging a tunnel with a spoon, this is where I start. Because I do know this: the way out involves reading, learning, and listening. Coates leads by the powerful example he set at The Mecca of taking learning into his own hands and proving what an agent of change knowledge can be: knowledge found in reading, revisiting history, and the stories of those who came before.
Coates calls poetry, “the craft of writing as the art of thinking.” He goes on to say, “Poetry aims for an economy of truth - loose and useless words must be discarded,” which is what his words, his book are, poetry.
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great insight Themi. This is inspiring to feel the way you grew in understanding through this book. You capture that feeling so well. It makes me question how much I know or don't know...