The Black Body

Section Description

In 2015, Atlantic national correspondent and journalist, Ta-Nehisi Coates, published his extended letter to his then 15-year-old son on being black in America and the importance of owning your black body. Coates, known for his critic and praise of President Obama, exposes the symbolism of America's long equated relationship with race, justice, and systemic oppression.

Author and civil right activist James Baldwin was also unapologetic in his lectures and thesis on race relations in America. Baldwin, unlike many in his time and now, finds solace in his identity as a black man, giving no regard to how American society views blackness and the importance of the black body, but rather stands in his truth and negates the notion of black being anything other than profound and beyond exceptional.

Reading:

'I am Not Your Negro' Gives James Baldwin's Words New Relevance

Mallory Yu, NPR

http://www.npr.org/2017/02/03/513311359/i-am-not-your-negro-gives-james-baldwins-words-new-relevance

Video Lecture:
Ta-Nehisi Coates gives the 2017 Zengelre Lecture before the U.S. Military Academy at West Point's English and Philosophy Department on his memoir Between the Word and Me.