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Laura Corona

Professor Huerta

English 1T

3 February, 2018

Dare to Dream

Growing up I was always told to follow my dreams, more specifically my own

American Dream. As I got older my version of this continued to evolve but overall it was

to go to college following a career I am most passionate about in order to eventually be

able to help provide for my family. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

talks about a different side to this American Dream. Coates is an African American man

who grew up in the tough parts of Baltimore. Despite his surroundings he went to

Howard University and although he didn’t graduate officially he did become very aware

of himself and the world around him. Coates wrote this memoir addressed to his son in

order to show the lack of realism in believing anyone can obtain the American Dream.

Although I can see where Coates is coming from it is this Dream that gives so many

people the motivation, power, and bravery to go after what may seem impossible

because of stereotypes and judgements enforced on them by society. This is why

despite agreeing with some of Coates’ claims I cannot accept his overall idea that we

must wake up from and let go of the Dream.

Living with lack of financial stability and therefore without many opportunities, it is

hard to find the motivation to wake up and keep going everyday. This Dream is the

motivation for so many people to grow and move on from whatever misfortunes they

were born into and that motivation is essential in evolving not just as individuals but also
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as a country. Throughout the book, Coates gives what seem as endless reasons to not

believe in this idea of the American Dream but in some ways he also expresses parts of

his own. Coates states “The pursuit of knowing was freedom to me, the right to declare

your own curiosities and follow them through all manner of books” (48). In other words,

Coates speaks of the aspirations he has for his own knowledge which all translate into

his own dream. He yearns to be educated, not necessarily from a classroom, but from

books that catch his attention and people around him that challenged his preconceived

ideas. When Coates speaks of the “right to declare our own curiosities” he is expressing

his dream to be free. He never particularly enjoyed public schooling and even at his

university he felt the restraints the classroom brought to the discussions he wanted to

have. This is why the “Mecca,” his own little sanctuary from the world was such a huge

part of his time at Howard University. Unknowingly this Mecca that Coates speaks so

lovingly of was a result of someone else’s dream which influences his own, to be

educated in a society that only expects you to end up dead or incarcerated.

Adding on, the dream is the root of many people’s resilience, that resilience

which perfectly embodies the core of the dream Coates claims to not believe in. In order

to believe in a dream that not many think you can achieve because of something as

small as the color of your skin you must be restlessly working towards it every day of

your life. “We are as Derrick Bell once wrote, ‘faces at the bottom of the well.’ But there

really is wisdom down here, and that wisdom accounts for so much of the good in my

life. And my life down here accounts for you,” he states (Coates 68). Although to the

world surrounding him he might seem significantly lower than them, Coates

understands that there is beauty and value in the fight his ancestors had and the
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wisdom they left behind for him. It is because of the resilience his ancestors showed in

the fight to govern their own body that Coates can now teach his son about the world

around him with the freedom of his own thoughts. That freedom might have come at a

high price but it is in and of itself the product of his people’s fight fueled with the hope of

a better tomorrow, the hope to obtain their own American Dream.

On the other hand, although the dream is a great way to stay motivated and

carve a path for ourselves we cannot forget that the ancestors of African Americans

paid and unfairly high price for the dream to stay alive in generations to come. In order

to honor their sacrifices we must not forgive the injustices they were forced to endure

just because this country makes a few miniscule changes in the way they express their

racism. It is no secret that this country has been less than kind to the African American

culture throughout history but no one has felt the effects of that as intensely as their

descendants. Coates states “But I, standing on the farm of a black man who fled with

his family to stay free of the South, saw Pickett’s soldiers charging through history, in

wild pursuit of their strange birthright-the right to beat, rape, rob, and pillage the black

body. That is all of what was ‘in balance,’ the nostalgic moment’s corrupt and

unspeakable core” (102). This brief summary of how many people felt even after slavery

was outlawed is Coates’ way of describing the white privilege felt throughout history. It

is many instances like these that we cannot dismiss without holding the guilty party

accountable for the continuous show of force over the black body. It is this constant

mistreatment of the African American culture that causes me to agree with Coates in his

claim that we must not take the history of how this country was built on the backs of
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many African Americans lightly because it is a story of corruption and injustices like no

other.

Moving on, although I agree with Coates that we shouldn’t forgive and forget the

corrupt past of this country, the progress made has been essential in him becoming an

educated man and in doing so breaking many stereotypes. It is thanks to to so many

activists like Dr.Martin Luther King JR and Malcolm X who themselves believed in their

power to make a change that Coates was even able to explore his curiosity for

knowledge. The dream was an essential factor in these and so many more historically

significant events that helped the development of this country. Coates’ admiration of

Malcolm X is no secret in his book specially when he states, “ If I could have chosen a

flag back then, it would have been embroidered with a portrait of Malcolm X...The

portrait communicated everything I wanted to be-controlled, intelligent, and beyond the

fear” (Coates 34). It is evident that Coates idolizes Malcolm’s honest fight against the

system without realizing that same fight embodies the very core of the american dream;

overcoming the misfortunes you were thrown and pushing for change despite the odds

being against you. In many ways this is also what Coates has managed to accomplish

up until that point in his life. Although it may not have been to the extent he wants,

Coates, unlike his ancestors, has control over his body as a black man in America. He

was able to educate himself and despite not graduating college he has managed to

make a life for himself and his family by educating himself and surrounding himself with

other intellectuals. And as for fear, Coates has shown a tremendous amount of bravery

in writing and publishing this book exposing not just his thoughts and experiences but

the inner fight his community has had to endure for so long trying to raise a family in a
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country that expresses nothing but hatred towards them. All these factors to what he

has accomplished are part of Coates’ dream that although it is not explicitly described

as such, is hidden between the lines throughout his memoir.

In spite of the many valid points made throughout Coates’ Between the World

and Me, I do not agree that the dream is a cause of our demise but rather a means to

our survival. It is because of the power believing in this dream to be obtainable gives,

that the progress in this country has been possible. Although we are not anywhere near

where we should be, we must acknowledge the fights that generations before us have

foughts armed with the vision of a better tomorrow and their belief in their own american

dream. Leaving this dream behind us would be an insult to not just the activist who

worked so hard for change but also the generations of slaves who never got to see what

a better life living free in this country could be like. Rather than letting of of this dream

we must take it for what we individually see it as in the pursuit oto fin true justice and

freedom from the racist blindfold America has been wearing for far too long.