Ta’Nehisi Coates’ memoir.
After reading Ta’Nehisi Coates’ memoir, Between the World and Me, please respond to the following question,
writing between 4 to 5 pages for your essay. It should contain quoted passages with specific examples from the
memoir (at least two passages from the memoir), in text citations, a works cited page, and be in 12 font Times
New Roman and MLA format. You should also support your answer by bringing in at least one of the other
writers we have read or learned about either by reading their excerpted writings, essays, or watching the video
clips provided during this unit: Langston Hughes, Martin Luther King Jr, James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Ibram
X Kendi, Robin, DiAngelo. You may draw upon ideas from your discussion posts and use sections of your
writing from the discussions in this unit as a springboard into writing your essay, if you so wish, but you should
not use the discussions verbatim (word for word).
Coates spends a lot of time in his memoir mentioning the “control of the black body,” particularly the “black
male body.” This control originates, according to Coates, in slavery, and is extended to contemporary society
by way of the government’s control, the legal system, the criminal justice system, law enforcement. But are
there other ways too that American society has attempted to “control the black body” such as through athletics
and the entertainment industry, through depictions in film, in music, in Hollywood? From sports to Hollywood,
are there attempts to “define the black body” and if so what is the effect of this “control?”
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