In Philly, Ta-Nehisi Coates talks race and the 'responsibility to resist'
For some students, school doesn’t come easy. They don’t revel in Shakespeare nor do they thrive in the confines of the classroom. Instead, their brains whir with the goings-on of the street, their main concern, protecting their vulnerable bodies.
High-school students across Philadelphia identified with this sentiment as they gathered at the Free Library last Friday to hear Ta-Nehisi Coates read from his latest book, Between the World and Me.
“This book was written for you. It is directed at my 15-year-old son, and he is in so many ways a stand-in for you,” said Coates, addressing the audience of 500 teens, students from 13 District and charter high schools. “My dad was born and raised in North Philadelphia, so my story in many ways begins here,” he added.
Coates’ book explores the reality of growing up Black in America, living in perpetual fear of violence against your body under the pressure of an unattainable dream. The act of going to school is a risk; the very act of living in your body while Black is a gamble. The deaths of Michael Brown Jr., 18, Tamir Rice, 12, and Sandra Bland, 28, he says, are verifications of this predicament.
“The events that are taking place right now, the racial injustice impacts me,” said Fatme Chaloub, a 16-year-old student from Girls’ High who attended the event. Chaloub aspires to be a cardiologist. “I feel like once they find out you’re Black, they make assumptions,” she said.
Students at the event all received a copy of the book through The Free Library’s Teen Author Series and have worked their way through the text in extracurricular book clubs and English classes.
“This one has truly impacted the kids,” said Kathleen DiTanna, who read the book this In Philly, Ta-Nehisi Coates talks race and the 'responsibility to resist' | Philadelphia Public School Notebook:
