Coates 114-152 Discussion

POST: Write a 200-word minimum response to the prompt below.  Due by Friday, 7/21, 11 pm.  

RETURN by Sunday, 7/23, 11 pm to comment on two other posts.

PROMPT:   As you finish up Between the World and Me, think about where Coates provides hope--where does he see the possibility for change?  What does he think might resolve the racial inequality that still affects our society?

Now that you've finished the book, return to Alexander's review Links to an external site. that we read when we first started the book.  Although she likes a lot of things about Coates' book, at one point in her review she says that it's too negative.  She says that Coates presents change as an impossibility, and she responds that, "I tend to think we must not ask whether it is possible for a human being or society to become just or moral; we must believe it is possible." 

Do you think Coates' makes change seem impossible or unlikely?  Do you see any hope in the book?  Where does Coates seem to leave open the possibility for change?  

If you don't think Coates leaves us with any hope, what do you think the purpose of that is?  Why does he present such a bleak picture of things?

Offer quotations from this final section to back up your answer.