Critical Reflection Prompt: Between the World and Me (whole book)
This critical reflection will follow Coates’ lead and be written as a letter. Your letter should be directed at who you most want to know and understand the fraught history of racism in the United States and Coates’ critique of the Dream. This may be a particular someone that you know or who has impacted your life (a relative, teacher, friend) or it could be the leader an institution (e.g., a school principal, university president), a government member, someone you know or have interacted with from your community experience, or other representative of a group of people. Be sure to use the text as well as specific details and observations from your community experience to explain and illustrate Coates’ critique of the American Dream
As there is much to work with, we’ve included some “threads” of ideas that you can pull to compose your letter. Or, choose another passage in which Coates writes about the Dream or Dreamer and unpack the meaning of the passage in your letter and connect with stories/observations from your community experience.
1. What is the struggle that Coates describes thoughout this book? The struggle which is the “only portion of this world which is under your control” (107). The struggle which has “ruptured and remade me several times over” awarding him a “rapture that comes only when you can no longer be lied to, when you have rejected the Dream” (115–116). Why does Coates argue that his son should, “Struggle. . but do not struggle for the Dreamers. Hope for them. Pray for them, if you are so moved. But do not pin your struggle on their conversion” (151). In your letter explain and illustrate (using the text) the importance of the struggle and how this is relevant to or connects with the community you are working with? Remember, specific details from your community experience make your writing and points more vivid.
2. Coates describes an incident when a white woman pushes his five year old son, “I was only aware that someone had invoked their right over the body of my son” (94). How does Coates use this incident to illustrate the visceral experience of vulnerability — of his own body, his son’s body, and all black bodies? How does he use it on a symbolic level to describe the ways in which the Dream is not real, if the Dream is for everyone. The Dream ignores the history of slavery, terror, segregation on which it is founded: “The forgetting is habit, yet another necessary component of the Dream” (143). Having a child further highlights for him how much the Dream is a dangerous myth: “The galaxy belonged to them, and as terror was communicated to our children, I saw mastery communicated to theirs” (89). In your letter explain why or how “vulnerability” is such a crucial experience for Coates (using the text), why forgetting history is a “necessary component of the Dream” and how these ideas are relevant and or connect with the community you are working with. Remember, specific details from your community experience make your writing and points more vivid.
3. Coates writes: “This is the foundation of the Dream — its adherents must not just believe in it but believe that it is just, believe that their possession of the Dream is the natural result of grit, honor, and good works”(98). He goes on to write, “there is the burden of living among Dreamers, and there is the extra burden of your country telling you the Dream is just, noble, and real, and you are crazy for seeing the corruption and smelling the sulfur” (106). In your letter explain (using the text)the difference between Coates’ critique of the Dream and his critique of the Dreamers. What does Coates want his son to understand about the Dreamers? How is this critique relevant to or connect with the people you are engaging with at your community partner? Remember, specific details from your community experience make your writing and points more vivid.
