This is a much different way than many people would like to view these young men, and it is a testament to Coates's lucid, immediate prose that such a misleading myth can be shattered so easily. The young men in the streets who wear flashy jewelry and low-slung pants, swagger, play loud music, carry and shoot guns, sell drugs, and embed the streets with intricate codes of behavior are not "thugs." They are human beings whose marginalized existence has led to their sartorial choices and out-sized physicality, which stands in for any actual sort of power or security. 22Ĭoates's discussion of Baltimore is both illuminating and deeply sympathetic. The crews walked the blocks of the neighborhood, loud and rude, because it was only through their loud rudeness that they might feel any sense of security and power. The hypocrisy is simply too much to bear, Coates writes, because America's treatment of black people absolutely does not dovetail with its conception of itself. If a country does these things and generally considers itself the grandest and most enlightened country in the world, then it ought to be able to withstand the scrutiny and questions levied at it. It compares itself to other countries and finds them wanting. America consistently touts its glorious, democratic heritage it waves flags, lights fireworks, quotes from the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, imposes its will on the world. 8Ĭountries throughout history have oppressed groups of people for arbitrary reasons, but not all of them claimed the mantle of exceptionalism that America does. America believes itself exceptional, the greatest and noblest nation to ever exist, a lone champion standing between the white city of democracy and the terrorists, despots, barbarians, and other enemies of civilization. This makes the notion of race even more insidious since people do not understand its origins and it is difficult to find real ways to address it.Īmerica makes no claim to the banal. It was created to make sure there was a "below" - a mass of people that lays the foundation for the privileged group to stand upon. Coates explains how whiteness is a construct because who is considered white has changed so many times throughout history.
One of those is that race is a real, tangible thing defined by hue and hair and other clear boundaries.
Part of Coates's work in this book is to dismantle certain myths. But race is the child of racism, not the father.
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