Race and Racism

Race and racism are two of the central themes of Between the World and Me. Unlike many scholars, Coates believes that race derives from racism, not the other way around. In other words, he believes that the desire to hate others in order to improve one's own status requires that there be an "other," a race "inferior" to one's own. Thus, the desire to be rich drove plantation owners to reduce enslaved people to possessions, strip them of their rights, and deny their humanity. It was the construct of race that enabled these plantation owners to believe that enslavement was good, and owning them wasn't evil.

America was founded on racism, fueled by the labor of enslaved people that made it possible for White people to live the Dream. Over a century after the Thirteenth Amendment abolished enslavement (except as a punishment for a crime), Black people are still oppressed, relegated to ghettos, and imprisoned at disproportionate rates. What's more, this history weighs on every Black American. Coates learned how to bear this burden, and now he hopes to teach his son to do the same through this letter.

The Black Body

Coates introduces the theme of the Black body on the first page of the letter, during his account of an interview he gave on a popular news show. Without realizing it, the interviewer who asked why he believed American progress was built on violence was really asking about his body: whether or not it was free, whether he was safe, whether he bore the weight of American history on his back. In the course of this letter, he explains how Black bodies have historically been used, beaten, enslaved, profiled, imprisoned, and otherwise crushed by their oppressors. Even—and perhaps especially—in Black neighborhoods, Black bodies are vulnerable, threatened on every side by police officers, guns, drugs, discriminatory laws, and violence within the community.

As a child growing up in the streets of Baltimore, Coates learned the subtle language of Black bodies: the fear of being targeted by cops and drug dealers alike, the "toughness" that covers that fear, the codes that dictate how people act in every situation, including saying hello. Even when he left Baltimore, that fear weighed on him. The knowledge of his own vulnerability never left him—at least, not until he visited France, where Black people don't have the same history of oppression.

The American Dream

Early on, Coates describes the American Dream like this: It is "...perfect houses with nice lawns. It is Memorial Day cookouts, block associations, and driveways. The Dream is treehouses and the Cub Scouts. The Dream smells like peppermint but tastes like strawberry shortcake." This beautiful, fanciful Dream, he writes, was built on the backs of enslaved people and is made possible by racism. It thrives, but only for white people: Black people rarely have access to it.

Coates calls it "the Dream" rather than "the American Dream" because it doesn't apply to all Americans. Those who believe in it are called Dreamers. Dreamers are, by virtue of the fact that they are sleeping, blind to the reality of racism. Some of them believe themselves to be enlightened. Some are completely unaware of the problem. And still, others aren't just complicit in the oppression of Black people; they actively participate in it. These Dreamers are police officers and lawmakers and even everyday citizens who use their privilege for evil—killing innocent children, assuming all Black people are criminals, and acting with impunity because the justice system only values Black bodies as prisoners. Knowing all this, Coates writes, it's difficult to...