Answer1

Your task is to read Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me and participate in discussion.

Warning: Coates's book is not long, but don't be fooled: it will take your attention to get through it.

Shortly after its publication on July 4, 2015, Between the World and Me won the National Book Award for nonfiction and garnered a MacArthur Genius Award for its author, who promptly moved to Paris where he continued to write articles for The Atlantic magazine and also produce the comic book Black Panther (2016). In 2019, Coates published his first novel, The Water Dancer.

Ta-Nehisi Coates is a public intellectual and media personality as well as a writer. Go here to see him talking about his book on CBS This Morning: CoatesCBS.

As you read Between the World and Me, think about the ways in which Coates speaks for/to you. What are his specific concerns for his son? Do your parents or grandparents have these same concerns for you? What criticisms does Coates levy against his country? What evidence does he present to support his criticism? Can you present additional evidence, either to support or refute his arguments?

Once you understand Coates's perspective-- how he feels and  why he feels it (you do not have to feel the same)

Instructions:

In your post, I want you to zero in on what Coates has to say about the "dream" and the "dreamers." What does he mean when he says that he doesn't want his son to lapse into the "dream"? What does this "dream" have to do with his friend Prince Jones? In what ways are you living this "dream," and in what ways are you fighting against it? If all of us woke up from what Coates is calling the "dream," what would we see .... what we know ... what we do?

Minimum words 250

Due: Tuesday Nov 8th

PDF Book Link: https://iberian-connections.yale.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Between-the-World-and-Me-by-Ta-Nehisi-Coates.pdf