Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Between the World and Me is a letter from Ta-Nehisi Coates to his 15-year-old son. It's part autobiography, part philosophy of what it's like to be black in America. It's a heartbreaking story of love and loss.

Coates' main theme is the loss of the black body. He reaches back into history to slavery, his family's history, like most black Americans, to explore the obvious exploitation of black lives from the beginning of our country. The right over one's own body seems obvious to most white people, especially men. While most of us white women can partly understand the concept of having our body broken and taken away from us, no one can understand what the black population in the Americas has been through. Coates talks about himself and what he wants for his son, only briefly talking about his wife's experiences as a black woman, the culmination of being black in America and being a woman in America.

 This book affected me on too many levels. I cried for my sister-in-law, who has most likely dealt with more discrimination than I could imagine. I cried for my nephew, who I hope won't be discriminated against for being biracial. I cried for my son, because he has no idea the privilege he's been born into because of the color of his skin. All I can do is teach him to be a human being, not a white person. I hope I succeed.