Blog Post #4

In the beginning of this reading, Coates talks about his encounter with the police, and it made me reflect on my own encounters. I have been pulled over maybe three or four times and although I felt nervous about getting a ticket, I never once felt uneasy for my own life. I always did what my father taught me to do: pull over, turn your truck off, take the keys out and put them on the dash, and put your hands up on your steering wheel. My father told me that law enforcement notice that and they appreciate the respect, and they don't have to feel uneasy on their side either.

So far, that method worked out for me, but I don't think I have to worry about it as much as I would if I were in a big city. Around these parts, the cops and the citizens have a better relationship. I know the names of most of the cops in our town and so does most everybody. Most of them are really great people. I can't imagine a situation where I feel utterly hopeless in the hands of a cop like what Coates described. He knew that something could go down at any point in time for a very irrational reason, and that the cops would without a doubt get off basically free.

I don't think I've ever felt that kind of hopelessness before, and I hope I never have to. It sucks to keep hearing about all these lose/lose situations that Coates has experienced because it didn't happen to just him. It happened to black people all over, and still does today. Even though I feel decently confident traffic stops around here don't get as intense, I can't speak for big cities. There is a long road ahead for social justice with law enforcement, but I feel like we are slowly starting to draw more and more attention to the subject. More people are watching what cops do, some departments have to wear cameras (even though some cops have had their's "mysteriously shut off" when something goes down). I think we can be hopeful for the future so that no one will have to feel the hopelessness that Coates describes.

Between the World and Me Blog Post #3

The beginning of this reading really opens Coates' eyes to the history of oppression. He is trying to figure out what being black all entails and what he finds surprises him. He remembers back to his history class in high school. There he read about kings and queens of the world, and what he started to notice was that he related to the servants of the them. What he also started to notice was that some of these people that were being oppressed just like his people, weren't always black. This changed everything in Coates' mind about being black. He suddenly thought that being black had absolutely nothing to do with skin color anymore, it had to do with being on the bottom.

I had to sit and think about that statement for a while. Is black really that bad of a word in society? I never thought it was, but after watching that video in class of all those men of different races in a circle, I realized that just because I don't notice something happening, it doesn't mean it's not happening. Coates said the realizations of all of that was exhausting, and that's one thing I feel like I actually can somewhat relate to as I read this book, but in a different way. As Coates is getting exhausted about realizing black people are constantly in a lose lose situation in society, I'm starting to find out just how bad white people have made it for them. It's literally embarrassing and shameful. I can't relate to what Coates has been through, but I do think that I am capturing some of his emotion for it all.