Coates Questions

Coates portray the American Dream as a place where everyone comes together and having a good time. It’s memorial day and there’s cookouts, block associations, and in the dream it smells like peppermints but taste like strawberries. It’s the best place to be with the perfect houses and lawns. What Coates means by that quote is that hope is all we have when there’s is all odd stack against a person. Sometimes you can feel that the world is against you when all that is has to show for you is negativity. That’s why he portrays that American dream and wishes that he could put a blanket over the world and live in the dream.

Coates explains how there has been failure when Michael Brown was killed and his killers was let go free. Leaving his body there on the ground like it was some “awesome declaration.” The reason the American Dream was built on the destruction of black bodies is because of this situation alone. With all the cruelty that the black community endure all we can do is Dream for better days and strive for a change.

When Coates says “race is the child of racism, not the father,” I think he means that since racism is some powerful and control some people lives race is nothing but a child compared to racism. Coates needs readers to understand this because to many people go about their lives seeing “race as racism” instead of seeing “race as race.”