Ta-Nehesi Coates speaks at Ohio State 11/10
This picture of one of my favorite writers, Ta-Nehesi Coates. He is a regular contributor the The Atlantic, and wrote “Between the World and Me.” Mr. Coates is one of the leading commentators on race in America. His visit was in the midst of the Black Lives Matter Movement, and right around the time that the events involving ConcernedStudent1950 and the resignation of the university president at Mizzou. Just days before, students at Ohio State protested racism present here on our campus. This event was focused on his book “Between the World and Me,” which is written as a letter to Mr. Coates’ son. He spoke about excerpts from the book, about his time at Howard University, and about police brutality, mass incarceration, and structural racism. A good friend of mine was able to ask him a question, and left with some book suggestions for learning more about the black experience in America. This event opened my eyes to a lot of things, and inspired me to want to read Mr. Coates’ book. Seeing such an esteemed writer and hearing his career path and research inspired me in my own passion for writing, and hearing him speak about things that I had very little knowledge about left me shocked and yearning to learn more. I found a quote from “Between the World and Me,” that summed up what I gleaned from this event:
“But all our phrasing—race relations, racial chasm, racial justice, racial profiling, white privilege, even white supremacy—serves to obscure that racism is a visceral experience, that it dislodges brains, blocks airways, rips muscle, extracts organs, cracks bones, breaks teeth. You must never look away from this. You must always remember that the sociology, the history, the economics, the graphs, the charts, the regressions all land, with great violence, upon the body.”
― Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me
Thank you Mr. Coates for opening my eyes.