Coates — Preview

The most obvious theme of the work is the racial divide that exists in America. Extending from early American history when blacks were enslaved to the present day in which black bodies are under constant surveillance and threat, white society has consistently denied the humanity of blacks in order to maintain its spurious “Dream.” One of the main distinctions Coates makes is that racism gave birth to race, not the other way around. The Dream was created by historians and fortified by Hollywood. It is very accessible for whites but is built on the marginalization and suffering of blacks. It requires ignorance and blindness to the realities of the racial divide. It is characterized by the devastation of black bodies and of the Earth. It is particular and rooted in white supremacy. Coates says that it is so common and conceived of in such noble and moral terms that it is unlikely the Dreamers will wake up. The author lists the different sorts of violence that non-whites have endured in America as the result of white culture and society striving to achieve dominance and control over non-white bodies. He suggests that this is partly because “America believes itself exceptional”; that America, as a society, is completely blind to its race-defined shortcomings; and that America, again as a society, operates on the premise that issues of race are inevitable in human experience.