I listened to the audiobook before I read the book. As I read, I could hear Coates' lyrical voice in my head again. The book is written to his then-15-year-old son. He wants to share his life and thoughts with him. It's not exactly "the talk" that a young Black male needs to hear, but much more than that.
Coates talks about growing up in Baltimore. As a child in a family that read books, he feels that he was slow to learn to navigate the streets, but once he learned, he realized how easily he could lose his life, whether by gangs or by the police. Coates is cynical about his boyhood education, but later, when he attended Howard University, he found it to be a Mecca, a "crossroads of the Black diaspora." At Howard, a Black didn't need to "represent to other people"; one could study and write and live in a world away from those who "think that they are white." Coates seemed especially intrigued with the writings of Malcolm X, but numerous others as well.
The safety of the Black body is uppermost in Coates' mind, whether considering himself or his son or his friends. He lists out the names of Blacks who have been killed by police who were not held responsible; his son is now seeing the injustice in these murders, as well.
This small, powerful book addresses the tightrope that Blacks navigate in our society and much more.
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