Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Between the World and Me” is an honest, raw love letter from Ta-Nehisi Coates to his fifteen-year-old son, Samori. The six-chapter letter was conceived after Coates watched his son’s heartache at the announcement that there would be no charges filed against Darren Wilson, the police officer who killed unarmed teenager Michael Brown. Coates reveals his own fears for his son and his frustrations with the world the boy is growing up in. He writes about the many senseless murders of black men; men who would still be alive if it weren’t for their black bodies. Coates tells his son, “You have every right to be you. And no one should deter you from being you. You have to be you. And you can never be afraid to be you.” Except the last sentence contradicts the world in which we live. Because Coates is afraid, both for his son and himself, but also of the world in which they live. The word body is repeated excessively in his letter. It is an insightful and persuasive argument that, first and foremost, we are a body. We are a body before any other distinguishing markers or features, and they embody a state of blackness. While this revelation isn’t new, the way Coates strings together his argument so elegantly causes one to pause and contemplate. His contrasts between human ideals and the stark realities of life rooted in racism are raw and painful. I found myself comparing this letter to Isabel Wilkerson’s masterpiece, Caste. While Coates points out the ways black bodies have been mistreated, his letter doesn’t provide the depth of contemplation and assessment that Wilkerson’s excellent work did.
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, (List Price: $20, One World, 9780812983814, June 2025)
Reviewed by Nichole, Bodacious Bookstore and Cafe in Pensacola, Florida
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