For my Book Club I had the opportunity to read Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates and it was a huge eye opening experience for me. Since the book is a letter from a father to a son it talks very openly about some of the issues or challenges facing people of African descent in our country. I was deeply disrupted by the way the author talked about always fearing for his body and that his body was so easily breakable. This disrupted me because I had never considered this. I have always thought that we are all on equal ground in relation to having control of and protecting our bodies. However while reading this book I have begun to reconsider this idea especially because of how the author talks about the smallest of interactions, especially with police offices, can mean the end of a black man's life. And that makes me uncomfortable because of my privileged position as a white which means that I do not have to worry about those things and I realize that because I have never had to worry about them that I have naturally assumed that they are issues that others do not have to worry about. But this book has helped me to realize how deep racism runs in our country.The author talked a lot about how America was built on the bodies of blacks which is so disturbing to think about but it is true. And yet too often we choose to forget that because accepting that fact would mean that we, as the privileged majority, have done something wrong and that we need to change. And that is something that we do not want to accept nor to be honest do we know how to do. And because of being unable to accept this racism has become so deeply run in our society that we have created many forms of racism like stealth racism and institutional racism and passive racism. We do not give minorities a chance to succeed. One of the things mentioned in the book that really struck me was that by not learning how to survive on the streets meant that you gave up your body now but also by failing to comprehend what was taught in schools meant that they gave up your body later. This was upsetting to me because it seemed like a lose lose situation with a connotation of fail now or fail later. And that would mean that often we just give minorities false hopes of escaping from a system that we have built to keep pushing them down.
We focus so often on the idea of the American Dream in this country and how by hard work anyone can make it but that was a main focuses of Coates. That those who are "Dreamers" are just fooling themselves because that dream is what has been the justification for so much cruelty that has happened in our past. And honestly if you would have asked me in September if I thought the American Dream was real I would have said yes but after participating in this Multicultural Education class and reading this book I would have to say no. That it is a trick that we use to justify why we privileged whites always come out on top. We have been born with all the cultural capital necessary to survive in America because we know what is necessary to fit in. We claim that all Americans have been given equality because we all have the same rights and privileges according to the law but we are far from achieving equity because those that have always had privilege have kept it while everyone else has stayed on the outside. And by reading Between the World and Me I really came to understand this because I was finally reading something from the eyes of someone in the middle of the problem rather then through my blind privileged eyes.
It is something that has become a life lesson for me as I have come to realize more and more about the issues that my future students will be facing in their lives. In my desire to become a teacher it has mostly been focused on me being able to help them and my desire to work with kids. But I have come to understand that being a teacher is something so much more complex. We have to power to do so much good in the world by helping to make change possible. But one of my biggest take-aways not only from this book but also from this class is that we must have our eyes open to the issues and problems and discrimination that our future students will face. We cannot ignore problems because ignoring them does not make them go away. And we may have students that like Coates honestly fear for their bodies or their lives because of things that are happening around them outside of school. And that is going to affect how they act in a classroom and how they learn and if we as teachers are not aware of that then we are going to miss out on a opportunity to make a difference or help them in some small way. Also it is so important that as teachers we do not have prejudices and that is something that I have a lot to work on but my eyes have been opened to so many issues and I know that now I cannot close them again. And so I am going to let that shape me into a teacher that works to not have prejudices and seeks to have true Christ like love.
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