Brilio.net/en - The situation of black people in the USA inspired the American Writer Ta-nehisi Coates to write an open letter to his fifteen-years old son in which he expresses his anger against the white imperialism dominating the country. In the tense context currently prevailing in America, the book Between the world and me didnt go unnoticed and produced a fierce reaction.
Ta-Nehisi Coates starting point is based on the following statement: the hegemony of white people in the United States is based on the belief that there are different races of men. This is where racism begins. According to him, before being white, Americans were Irish, English, Italian ... then they discovered themselves as white and superiors. Originally, the planters of Virginia "obsessed with the idea of turning as many Americans as possible into slaves" became citizens living a dream of superiority and "standardization of disparate tribes in equal whiteness." This dream comes true through humiliation, blood, violence against the one who is not white: "a criminal enterprise of domination says the author. The country claims to be democratic, led by the people, but what people? Black people have been politically excluded from the people for a very long time.
Image viaThe Washington Post/Andre Chung
Ta-Nehisi Coates grew up in Baltimore in a black neighborhood in the grip of daily violence. He always lived in fear, accompanied by his father belt blows, this librarian local leader of the Black Panthers. In the street, her weak and nonviolent was afraid of other blacks, their aggressiveness. They too were afraid, he believes, but they were able to change their fear into rage. The small Ta-Nehisi therefore learns the rules of the street, responding to aggression, distrust and protects to survive. He learns the "street culture", fear screwed stomach. Then it is the school in which many poor black families place their hopes for their children succeed to get out of poverty. But Ta-Nehisi is not made for school and now draws a bitter conclusion: over 60% of young black men who leave high school end up in prison. He believes that salvation by the school is hypocritical.
Praised by many critics, the reviews about this book are strong: either love or hate but there is no in-between. Some see in it the necessary denunciation and the punch that America needed to grow in the future as a more equal nation, when others see in it a provocation that is going to increase even more the racism against white people.
In every instance, the large polemic created around it would have been an excellent marketing ploy.
Source: nytimes, the guardian
(Reported by Celia Tholozan)