Between the World and Me

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of racism, graphic violence, and death.

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. Coates structures the entire book as a letter to his teenage son. How did this intimate format affect your reading experience, and what did you learn about the father-son relationship through this literary choice?

2. Between the World and Me has drawn comparisons to James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, which likewise was structured as letters addressing racial injustice in the US. If you’ve read Baldwin’s work, how do you feel Coates’s perspective builds on or differs from Baldwin’s arguments? If you haven’t read Baldwin’s work, what other works addressing racial experience in the US might you compare it to?

3. What section or specific passage in the book had the most profound impact on you? What made this particular moment resonate so strongly?

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. Coates describes his awakening at Howard University (which he calls “the Mecca”) as a place where he discovered the complexity and diversity of Black identity. Have you had an educational or community experience that fundamentally changed your understanding of yourself or your cultural identity?

2. Throughout the book, Coates emphasizes how his mother taught him to investigate and question the world through writing. What tools or practices have you developed to make sense of complex social realities?

3. When Coates visits Paris, he experiences temporary freedom from the constant vigilance he feels is necessary in the US. Have you ever gained a new perspective on your home country or culture while traveling? How did that experience change your understanding of where you’re from?

4. Coates writes about the different kinds of love he discovers through his relationships at Howard—from the woman whose father was from Bangalore to the bisexual, polyamorous woman who challenged his thinking. How has your understanding of love—whether romantic, familial, or communal—evolved throughout your life?

5. Coates discusses his complicated relationship with school education versus the education he received from his parents and books. How has your education, both formal and informal, shaped your understanding of history and social issues?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. Coates challenges the sanitized portrayal of civil rights history when he writes about schools showing films where Black people “seemed to love the worst things in life—love the dogs that rent their children apart, the tear gas that clawed at their lungs” (33). How do you think educational institutions should approach teaching difficult histories of oppression and resistance?

2. The book was published in 2015, following the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and others mentioned in the text. How do you think the conversation around racial justice and police violence has evolved since then, and how might Coates view these developments?

3. Coates refers to “the Dream” as the harmful illusion of American equality that ignores historical and ongoing racial injustice. Where do you see this concept of “the Dream” at work in contemporary social and political discourse?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. Coates repeatedly uses specific phrases like “to destroy the black body” (103) rather than concepts like the denial of “freedom” or “rights.” How does this embodied language affect the power of his argument about racial violence in the US?

2. Throughout the book, Coates uses the image of “the Dream” to symbolize a dangerous American fantasy: the fallacy of American idealism and moral goodness. How does this metaphor evolve throughout the text, and what other key metaphors or symbols did you notice?

3. The death of Prince Carmen Jones is a pivotal moment in the narrative. How does Coates use this specific tragedy to illuminate broader patterns of racial violence, and what makes this particular story so powerful within the context of the book?

4. Coates writes that the “process of washing the disparate tribes white, the elevation of the belief in being white, was not achieved through wine tastings and ice cream socials, but rather through the pillaging of life, liberty, labor, and land” (10). How does his analysis of whiteness as a constructed identity contribute to the book’s overall argument?

5. Coates often shifts among personal anecdotes, historical analysis, and direct address to his son. How do these shifts in perspective and voice enhance his message? Which narrative mode did you find most compelling, and why?

6. The title Between the World and Me comes from Richard Wright’s poem about racial violence. After reading the book, how do you interpret this title and its relationship to the content of Coates’s work?

Encourage imaginative and creative connections to the book.

1. If you were to write a letter to someone in your life about an important social reality they will face, in the style of Coates’s letter to his son, who would you address it to, and what would be your central message?

2. Coates describes his early love of poetry and how it shaped his thinking and writing. Create a short poem or spoken-word piece that captures one of the main themes in Between the World and Me.

3. The book ends with Coates urging his son, Samori, to seek knowledge and wisdom for himself rather than helping others wake from the Dream. Imagine a conversation between Coates and his son 10 years after Samori receives this letter. What questions might he ask his father, and how might his own perspective have evolved?

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