'Between the World and Me' by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates (4.0)

This book may likely become required reading for future high-schoolers to understand the experiences and feelings of a typical young black man growing up in the late 1900’s. Mr. Coates has written a small, but powerful book to his son trying to explain, using a few main events in his life, how his formative years defined him. Throughout the book he struggles with sharing the hard truths and protecting the innocence his son currently enjoys. While he knows his son lives in a different time and place, he also knows in reality enough has not changed for a young black man growing up in the US today. One of the most powerful lines in the book to me was: ‘You have been caste into a race in which the wind is always at your face and the hounds are always at your heels. And to varying degrees this is true of all life. The difference is that you do not have the privilege of living in ignorance of this essential fact.’  This book is not long and not preachy. It does a very good job of highlighting the challenges facing every black person today. As many studies have proven, we all have biases- some obvious and some not. While we can never truly walk in someone’s shoes, this book does a good job of describing what that experience is like.