Between the World and Me

This isn't a book so much as an extended essay. Framed as a letter to his teenaged son, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes about what it means to be black in America. About the boundaries he had always assumed were firmly in place in his life and the ways he's grown past them. About friends he's made and friends he's lost and his anger at the injustice that seems to plague everyone he knows. About his hopes and fears for his son and the things that he both does and does not want to change.

This wasn't written for me, but it's one of those pieces that it's important everyone reads. It's probably even more important that the people it wasn't written for read it. It provides a very different view of America than the one I've had my entire life, one that needs to be integrated if we're ever going to make this country great.

That said, there were things I could identify with deeply. The way college can help you find your tribe and expand your worldview, giving you opportunities you never even considered. The fears that come with raising a child, particularly that tug of war between protecting them from ever getting hurt and not wanting them to be naive or sheltered. Our fears aren't the same, but they're grounded in the same thing.

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