Ta-Nehisi Coates' "Between the World and Me": A Reflection on Life, Identity, and Race

Kevin C. Routh: "Between the World and Me" is one of the most moving and beautifully written books I've ever read. The book, a letter from the author to his son, insightfully and clearly lays out what it is to be Black in America. The wisdom conveyed in this letter is of the highest order and pulls back the veil which so poorly conceals what America truly is. The Dream that has infected us all, and which we so sorely need to awaken from. This is one of the best books i've ever read, and i cannot recommend it highly enough. Please find a copy and read it. I want to get an audio copy to hear it again in Mr. Coates own voice. I am in awe.

United States on Jan 12, 2024

Danni: Truthfully, I couldn’t put it down and have recommended it to almost everyone I know. Definitely a “must read”!!!

Canada on Dec 29, 2023

SP: The real face of US. If it doesn’t make us to cry, we are in all probability, a piece of stone.

India on Apr 30, 2023

Kinky Kid: Doloroso y triste, pero al mismo tiempo hermoso, en esta carta hacia su propio hijo, Coates analiza la situación racial de Estados Unidos desde un enfoque muy personal. El libro escrito de manera magistral te hace sentir la rabia sobre las injusticias vividas por los afroamericanos solo por el color de la piel. Recomendadisima.

Mexico on Dec 30, 2021

Mme Martha Anfossi: This is SO beautifully written! Thank you! I grew up in a wealthy Baltimore family whose parents really did fulill their white dreams. They had had a poor economic background but believed in education: mom became a nurse, dad a broker for an international firm. Fortunately with 2 older jazz musician brothers in the 50s, who openned the minds of their 4 younger siblings, all but one learned to speak French, with me even ending up living there. Learning other cultures should be mandatory. It puts your principles in better perspective.

France on May 22, 2021

Aline de Almeida Gandra: I loved it. It changed my life.
I also wrote about this book for my Postcolonial Literature course at the University, and it was a great pleasure to analyze it as an academic person.
Great book!

Brazil on Jul 20, 2020

P. McCollum: This book was a bit eye-opening for me as a white person, though I don't think it transcends any racial divides.

I am a 30 something white male who Coates language believes that I am white and comes from the dream. The "belief in ones whiteness" and the "dream" are two fundamental themes of the book.

The "dream" is to live a free life. Its a life freedom from fear of physical vulnerability and pain, free from fear of the the system, and free from fear of economic want among other freedoms. The dreamers, according to Coates, also have a lack of consciousness about what sustains their life style.

Coates did not grow up living the dream. His story starts in his childhood in an inner city Baltimore neighborhood where he was always worried about his physical security when he was walking to school figuring out how many friends he was with and who was around him. In the Baltimore inner city, "might often made right" and if you were not aware of theses things, people would steal your bike, people would bully you, steal from you, and possible even kill you according to Coates. Coates once had another kid pull a gun on him when he was a pre-teen. Living the dream by...

United States on Aug 21, 2015

Amy Breedlove: Every new month brings with it a flood of new names forever lost to this life, here and now. Trayvon, Brown, Garner, Tamir, Emanuel 9, and Sandra, with innumerable names before and many more to come. True tragedies. Unspeakable evils.

Those who bear the inhumane weight of racism seemingly burst with grief constantly. How can a human endure such relentless onslaught? The truth of being a person of color in America, is that this country was not built for all. This country was, though, built on the backs and bodies of black lives.
"Whites" that benefit from white supremacy and privilege don't want to understand the insidious cost of an empire with a history (and ongoing reality) that diminishes and devalues non-"white" persons and cultures.

I've read "Between the World and Me" in the wake of Sandra Bland's murder. "Suicide!" some will vehemently counter. No, Sandra was murdered.

I will never know the struggle to survive that a woman, a black woman, has to daily endure, moment by moment, her whole life long. Being non-white, non-male, non-evangelical, non-heterosexual, and non-abled bodied is a constant struggle in the empire of America.

Sandra Bland...

United States on Jul 24, 2015