Between The World and Me

“Americans believe in the reality of “race” as a defined, indubitable feature of the natural world,” says Tanahasee Coates in his book Between the World and Me. Racism happens not because of people’s differences, but because of the historical separation of different races. Laquan McDonald had his life taken away because of his race. He was shot 16 times by Officer Jason Van Dyke who said he “felt threatened” by Laquan. This case was disputed for a long time, Officer Van Dyke argued that Laquan was lunging at him with a weapon and only shot him once in response. Eventually the dash cam footage was released and everyone saw that Laquan was walking away when the officer shot him 16 times even after he had already collapsed. All of this because a police officer felt threatened by someone whos skin was a different color then his.
Racism can be traced to humans’ natural dislike for people different than themselves. Differences threaten ones’ sense of self and safety on a very instinctive level. This is what caused Officer Van Dyke to fire at Laquan. Had it been a white man in a suit the story would have been very different and that’s what’s sad about the world we live in. “In America, it is tradition to destroy black body--it is heritage.” Tanahasee Coates could not be more right. Racism can be tracked to virtually the beginning of civilization in Ancient Mesopotamia where kings would take slaves from different lands and use them to better their kingdom. In Between the World and Me, Coates is paving the way for his son to survive and succeed in this world where racism is a problem that he is going to encounter.
Racism is outdated, in a day and age where people are more different than ever, racism should start to fade but unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be happening. Often people will go out of their way to not be racist which isn’t horrible but in the eyes of Tanahasee Coates it isn’t good. While talking about the struggle of black people on television, “the host flashed a widely shared picture of an eleven-year-old black boy tearfully hugging a white police officer. Then she asked me about “hope.” And I knew then that I had failed.” He is saying he failed, not because his point didn’t get across. He failed because he was trying to get her to understand, not to have her look at the bright side because in reality there isn’t a bright side.
  In a perfect world Laquan McDonald would still be alive because the officer wouldn’t have felt the need to shoot him 16 times. While the death of Laquan is 100% the police officers fault, the stereotype that poor black men are always dangerous is very damaging to society and especially police officers that get into these types of situations. Tanahassee Coates knows believes that racism exists because of the historical separation of black people and white people and I have to agree. While this isn’t the only reason, history plays a major role in how race is viewed and how race turned into racism.