I Read These Two Books

Last week, during the spring break, I spent time reading two books that a friend of mine recommended me to read. He said that it would change my mind about the American dream, which I used to write about in a post before. Those books were "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin, and "Between The World And Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates. I have heard about James Baldwin before but I haven't had a chance to read his books as well as his work as a journalist. With Ta-Nehisi Coates, I read "The Water Dancer" during the Covid-19 and I must say it was amazing in so many ways.

Source: The cover of Between The World And Me

Two books, oh my God, were so amazing and sad at the same time. They were not just books. They were letters that were written at different times in history. One was written during the Civil Right Movement, and one is in today’s time. But both authors, James Baldwin, and Ta-Nehisi Coates, share the same obstacle that racism and brutality of humanity in American society to success for the recipients of the letters. Each author had a different way to describe the brutality of life in America for Black people.

In a letter from Baldwin to his nephew, he told James that he accused America and American people, who here are white people, destroyed thousands of lives. But they will never condemn their actions or admit what they did. The brutality of lives also showed through the living condition of Black people in the ghetto and even sadder when living in a society which he called “spelled out with brutal clarity”; the life of a black person is “a worthless human being.” And because of that, the dream is limited. It is still happening in today’s world. He told James not to try to be white people or be accepted by them. While there are still racism and brutality, Baldwin wanted James to find a way to get white people with love, whom he describes the innocent people with no other hope. It is like a big comeback.

Source: The cover of The Fire Next Time

In his letter of Coates to his son, he focused on the brutality of police when he mentioned the death of Prince Carmen Jones, whom Coates met at Howard. Like other murders of black people, police got away quickly without holding any accountability. He condemned the action of police and white people in America. Jones was shot while driving to his fiancee’s house by a police officer. He later said Jones tried to run over him with his jeep. This brutality made Coates outraged. But like what Baldwin wrote to his nephew, it continues daily. He told his son to struggle because he wanted him to understand all the difficulties of the ancestors and find wisdom. But Coates doesn’t want his son to work for the Dreamers because they will struggle alone.

Coates’ time in Howard helped him see the diversity of people at school; from that, he could understand why the Africans came to America. He realized his people have many talents, from music to science, engineering to politics. He considered his African heroes noble. But as he did more research and began to write poems, he became a Dreamer, and what he wrote dramatized his people by writing good things without knowing the real struggle of his people. He accused Americans of dramatizing black people.

Coates no longer desires the Dream because he views the Dream as only existing when there is racist injustice material. At the same time, the U.S. becomes what it is right now from the exploitation of African Americans. It is a dark reality, and whether we believe it or not, it still exists. Coates saw that it was an ugly picture of the Dream. When it is too beautiful for someone not white, the Dream will be a big scary picture and might not be accurate.

Both authors want to tell the recipients about their life when they are black in America and what might happen to them at any time. The visions of the future of both authors are different. Baldwin seems to look into a brighter future with loving and no more hate. Coates does see that kind of future when there are still racism and brutality.

Two books are challenging to read. It is not because they have words full of symbolism or advanced literature. Their books intersect with my idea of the American Dream by showing the reality of a society with a barrier between achieving the American dream and racism. If you want to send a letter to your children in the future, you may include nice things such as motivating words or your experience as a lesson so that your children can look positively into the future. But it is entirely contrary when two books, Between The World And Me and The Fire Next Time, letters sent to the sons, wanted to emphasize one thing. Racism is still out there and never go away. It is a sad picture, but it is accurate. An American dream that both Baldwin and Coates wanted to say is a mirage that anyone different than white will be hard to achieve.

Conclusion:

It saddens me to read the letters they sent to the next generations. They talked about the racial system in America, the unfair treatment of black people, and the brutality of the police. It is not raising fear for the reader. It is about telling the truth when you are different than white. Baldwin chose to love because, with him, love is the only solution to dealing with hate. Coates decided to struggle because it is the only way to understand what the previous generation had been through, how they worked through the dark time, and from that, they can find out a way to deal with problems of race.