Netcees September Book of the Month Discussion Thread

[oats]

Book: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Aite so to me, this should go beyond the simple "I liked/disliked it because XYZ." When I read books, I tend to look at it like this: did the book work? What was its ambition, and did it execute that ambition? How was it successful/in what ways was it unsuccessful? I think that's a good place to start.

Here are some discussion questions I pulled off the internet as well. This isn't school, so don't feel like you have to address all (or any) of these questions, but I feel like they're a good way to get you thinking about the book.

1. Between the World and Me has been called a book about race, but the author argues that race itself is a flawed, if not useless, concept—it is, if anything, nothing more than a pretext for racism. Early in the book he writes, “Race, is the child of racism, not the father.” The idea of race has been so important in the history of America and in the self-identification of its people—and racial designations have literally marked the difference between life and death in some instances. How does discrediting the idea of race as an immutable, unchangeable fact change the way we look at our history? Ourselves?

2. Fear is palpably described in the book’s opening section and shapes much of Coates’s sense of himself and the world. “When I was your age,” Coates writes to his son, “the only people I knew were black, and all of them were powerfully, adamantly, dangerously afraid.” How did this far inform and distort Coates’s life and way of looking at the world? Is this kind of fear inevitable? Can you relate to his experience? Why or why not?

3. The book is written in the form of a letter. Why do you think Coates chose this literary device? Did the intimacy of an address from a father to his son make you feel closer to the material or kept at a distance?


4. Coates is adamant that he is a writer, not an activist, but critics have argued that, given his expansive following and prominent position, he should be offering more solutions and trying harder to affect real change in American race relations. Do you think he holds any sort of responsibility to do so? Why or why not?


5. Do you think Between the World and Me leaves us with hope for race relations in America? Why or why not? Do you think “hope” was what Coates was trying to convey to readers? If not, what are you left with at the end of the book? If so, hope in what?


I'll come back to this tomorrow and post my thoughts. @Diode can you sticky this instead of the other one por favor? <3