Coates’ central message that he is trying to convey to us is that, living in black skin in our country today is scary for them. One for, they are constantly racially profiled by law enforcement and two, America having a worried past on how African Americans were treated in this country. He explains how living in society as an African American is a “Visceral experience”, constantly watching their back for danger, police brutality, and even having less resources for them to become successful. Coates talks about how when he was younger, he only knew African Americans and each and every one of them was in fear whenever they walked out of their houses. They wore huge puffy coats and their lavish rings and chains and he called those their armor. They would stand in the corner “posting up” knowing that anything bad could happen anytime because they are sagging their pants and looking “thug”. This relates to the dream because towards the end of this whole article, he says he feels sorrow towards him. His points all correlated to the dream because he says “But this has never been an option, because the dream rests on our backs, the bedding made from our backs, and knowing this, knowing our dream persists by warring with the known world, I was sad for the host, I was sad for the families..” As he tells his son, he wants his son to be well aware about the structural racism that is evident in this country because, knowledge is powerful, and the more aware that his son is about these issues growing up, it will allow him to be more outspoken to the world and talk about these issues without fear.
Coates’ desires to share these truths with his son correlated to Rauches story because Rauche talks about friendship and companionship with his animals is a special thing to him. He never really had human friendship until he was 6 or 7, and being able to care for things other than humans is an important thing to consider. Being caring towards critters shows much more compassion towards our world and how we should put ourselves out to society. Another reason why he cherishes his companionship with critters is because they require a much different type of affection than humans. They only require instinctual companionship, than having a much more complex way, such as humans.
Coate’s article relates to the people that I work with because these undocumented immigrants have to walk outside their houses living in fear, knowing that they could be racially profiled or taken by the police anytime of the day. They have to constantly keep an eye on their back for whatever reason. It is different for white Americans living in America because they do not have to live in fear that these minorities have to. It is also difficult how an undocumented parent has to face to talk to their children about their current situation and how they should be living in a survival instinct like them in an early age. This shows the children what America is for them and it is not all love for them.
Rauch’s story helps me to understand that not all these bad things that happened to these people happened out of the blank. Their is a much more complex story to everything. Although he did murder someone, maybe we could look into why he did it, how his past was like. It is the classical saying of don’t judge a book by its cover. This is important in my partnership because they come into class smiling and being talkative, but we do not know if they have a mask behind all of this and they are going home to sadness and dread. It is important that every story has to be heard and taken in open mindedness.
