Nine years ago, I went on a three week Jewish learning program for women called Jewel. The program took place in Israel. At the airport, I was getting to know one of the participants who had progressive views (I’m not sure how she made it through the program). I kept up with this person for a bit and when we reunited in NYC, I asked her to recommend some books. One of those books was Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. It’s been on my list for several years, and when I rented a room in Crown Heights, I got extremely excited because the book that I had been planning to read for so long was right in front me. I finally finished it over the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah.
The title of the book is taken from the poem “Between the World and Me” by Richard Wright from White Man Listen! The poem is the prologue of the book. Midway through the book, I reread the poem, which states that “the sooty details of the scene rose, thrusting themselves between the world and me.” This profundity of this poem and the statement is something that humbles me, especially after reading most of the book and getting acquainted with what Coates had been through. After rereading the poem, I realized that the author, Ta-Nehisi Coates is calling for people like me (White people) to see a different perspective, to see the sooty details of his life. Details that are delineated in this book. Details that unless I and others like me take time to see and hear, we’ll miss.
One of the details that I definitely would have missed had I not read this book is the tragic death of Coates’ friend and fellow Howard University classmate Prince Carmen Jones who was shot and killed by the police. Words will never be able to do such a loss justice. No piece can ever be written to replace the taking of Prince Jones. I will never know why the police killed Prince Jones or why they killed Breonna Taylor, or the countless other individuals who were innocent and taken for no reason at all. But what is clear is that the Black Lives Matter movement is a reaction to these losses. This is not justice. Considering that one of the tenets of Judaism is Justice, justice you shall seek, one becomes empathetic for the struggles and the losses of others and is called to action.
Another detail that led me to better understand the author’s rage over the death of Prince Jones is the fact that he is an atheist. Throughout the book, he had mentioned on several occasions that he did not believe in God. He mentioned that he had taken no solace in the faith perspective of why Prince Jones was killed. He also repeatedly mentions “the body” which is a recurring theme in the book. Coates fervently believes in the real world and the presence of his body in it. He believes in this, whereas he does not believe in God. Coates cherishes the safety of his body and the body of his son to whom the book is written. He makes it clear to the reader that he will do anything to protect his son.
Case in point is another detail that Coates discusses in the book of him losing his cool after a white woman pushes his son out of the way on an escalator. Coates understandably yells at the woman who is defended by her husband. The husband then begins to yell at Coates and tells him that “I could have you arrested.” Coates interprets this statement as a threat to his body which is extremely profound, but perhaps even more profound is that Coates reflected on his anger and realized that it was he was the one putting his son’s body in danger. He realized that his anger could have caused him to lose his son and he was sorry for this.
There are many more details in the book that are simply beautiful. The way that the author describes his time at Howard University which he lovingly refers to as The Mecca leads one to somewhat of a FOMO for not being a part of the community that was formed during his time there. He also includes a picture of two smiling college women with whom he likely went to Howard. I sat there and stared at the two smiling girls with a reflective grin. This picture is the essence of everything good and true in this world. To think that people like this are taken by the world and killed by the police is unbearable.
White passing Jews like myself are privileged to have the option to learn about experiences like Coates’s and although they can read countless books like it, they will never know what it’s like to go through life with the same fears as Coates. Coates and others like him do not have the option to merely learn about the fears, rather, they actually have to live through them. Countless others like Prince Jones, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, and Eric Garner (to name a few) haven’t been as fortunate and it is depressing to think that they were taken because of the color of their skin. We have got to do better as a society, to do better than our parents generation. Together we will be able to make the necessary changes that is that our society drastically needs to eradicate the plague of racism both in the Jewish world and the world at large. The changes start by getting educated, learning more, and continue into a lifelong journey of action and the pursuit of justice. We truly are all in this together.
