Throughout Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, the black body is an endangered commodity. Its owners continually risk being deprived of control over their bodies by police violence and societal power dynamics, reflecting how white privilege is built on the active subjugation of black bodies. Many white Americans  “accept this as the cost of […]

Read more "The Jerome Project and the Faces of Mass Incarceration"

“In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body—it is heritage.”[1] This powerful statement is the foundation of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, in which the author explicitly details the racism, hatred, violence, and inequality thrust upon the black body in the United States. Coates targets the Dreamers, privileged white Americans, who […]

Read more "“The Modern Equivalent of Jim Crow”: Arresting Patterns and the Fight to End Police Brutality"

Last week’s class discussion really sparked a lot in my own reflection. I come from a very conservative religious family and had only really begun to understand a lot about different identities (especially those in the LGBT community) while in undergrad. This class has really helped me expand my understanding of different identities in different […]

Read more "Reflecting on Identity"

After last week’s class, I found myself reflecting on the article we read from the National Council on Public History. The article discussed a push in the National Parks Service to interpret sites related to LGBT history and community. The major question that emerged from the article was, “How can we promote understanding of LGBT […]

Read more "Negative Spaces: Confronting Gaps in Archives and Collections"

France has long been considered one of the most romantic and enticing places to visit and live, particularly for African Americans. There has been a long history of African Americans moving to France, and particularly Paris to escape persecution and be seen simply as a person, and not as a Black object. African American artists […]

Read more "Paris: Safe Haven, but Not Utopia"

From the very first page, “Between the World and Me,” by Ta-Nehisi Coates is a commentary on the current state of affairs with regards to the treatment of black bodies. The body is a recurring theme in Coates’ book, and in no context is it more powerful than when he describes the consequences of having […]

Read more "Murdered by His Country: Police Brutality in “Between the World and Me”"

Doing the readings for last week’s class, which focused on the rights of the LGBT+ community, I found myself really questioning where my voice fits into the conversation. I am not a part of the LGBT+ community. I do consider myself an ally, but even as someone who is very invested in the rights of […]

Read more "Questioning My Place"

History is at the heart of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between The World And Me. Not just in how the events of the past shape the lives of African-Americans, but in how understanding and misunderstanding of the past shape both American society and Coates’ perception of it. Looking back on his youth in Baltimore, Coates remembers fear […]

Read more "Without Any Fantastic Gloss: History in “Between the World and Me”"

In his book Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates writes to his fifteen-year-old son about what it means to be a black man living in a black body.  He illuminates how history, social constructs, and current events merge to create a society where, “police departments . . . have been endowed with the authority […]

Read more "The Mecca: Ta-Nehisi Coates and the Howard University Experience"

Historic house museums often center their interpretation on the historic residents of the homes. Sites like the George Eastman Museum, Alice Austin House Museum, and Mercer Williams House Museum are left with the complicated legacies of their residents’ queer lifestyles. Prior to the early 20th century, sexuality was not considered an individual identity, so while […]

Read more "Reinterpreting Sexuality at the Jane Addams Hull House Museum"