Reading and Writing

Ta-nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me
Discussion Questions 1-77 pages

1. When the news reporter show Coates a picture of a black kid hugging a police officer and
talking about hope, he says he knew he had failed. What does he mean by this failure?

2. Where does race (putting a hierarchy to skin hue and hair) come from according to
Coates?

3. How did many people become “white” rather than what they were before that (i.e.
German, Catholic, Welsh, Jewish) –according to Coates?

4. Look up the five cases of police shootings listed on page 9. Does it feel accurate when
Coates says that the police can destroy your body without consequence—they will still
receive pensions?

5. Why wouldn’t Coates comfort or console his son after he learned about that the killer of
Michael Brown was not going to be indicted? Do you think that was a wise decision why
or why not?

6. Why was fear so pervasive in Coates’ community growing up? Give examples.

7. How does Coates view his father’s and his grandmother’s use of corporal punishment?

8. What effect did having a kid pull a gun on him in the sixth grade in 1986 have on Coates?

9. Why didn’t school (pre-college) work for Coates?

10. How did his Coates mom and family encourage his writing and more importantly his
thinking?

11. Why did Coates gravitate to Malcolm X as a hero rather than the Freedom Riders and
other non-violent examples of shown to him in Civil Rights films during black history
month in school?

12. Explain the significance of the quip by Saul Bellow, “Who is the Tolstoy of the Zulus?”
and explain the response Coates later heard from a professor at Howard.

13. How did Coates’ college girlfriends impact his perspective?

14. Why do you think Coates emphasizes to his son that slavery is specific, not vague or
generalized?