“I knew that Prince was not killed by a single officer so much as he was murdered by his country and all the fears that have marked it from birth” (Coates 78). Why might Coates see the killing of Prince Jones in this way? Or, how does shifting the focus from the actions of a single officer to the US and a historical fear of Blacks alter the way we see police violence or killing? In responding to the question, draw a text-to-text connection with another part of Coates’ text.

1.) When Coates speaks of this tragic event, he expands on the fact that he has heard so many stories of innocent lives being lost simply because they were black and in the wrong place at the wrong time. He claims that Prince was killed by his country because of the bias that many Americans were raised with was that black people in general would be more likely to commit crime and be more suspicious. This makes police treat people differently solely based on their skin color. His shift that he makes from one single police officer to the country as a whole shows his belief that this incident was not an isolated one, and that the American police system was built around the idea that skin color indicated suspicion. This fear connects back to earlier in the book when he was talking about growing up in Baltimore. “Later, I would hear it in Dad’s voice– ‘Either I can beat him, or the police.’ Maybe that saved me. Maybe it didn’t.”(pg 16). This quote shows how in his childhood, he was raised to always be wary of the police, because they would be out to get him more than out to protect him.

“The galaxy belong to them [Whites on West Broadway], and as terror was communicated to our children, I saw mastery communicated to theirs” (Coates 89). What do you think Coates means by this distinction between communicating terror and communicating mastery? Support your response with evidence from the text.

2.) By saying this, I think that Coates meant that white children were raised to believe that they could do or be anything they wanted, that they could accomplish their dreams. From his experiences in his childhood, he found that instead of telling their kids that they could be anything they wanted to be, they were instead warned that they could be hurt anytime that they left the house. “All my life I’d heard people tell their black boys and black girls to be ‘twice as good,’ which is to say ‘accept half as much.’”(Coates 90). This quote just goes to show the significant disparity between how children of different races are raised. This inequality of how children of different races are raised is one of the many issues that need to be solved if people want to truly reach equality for everyone.

Offer ONE SIGNIFICANT PASSAGE you will be prepared to read and offer as a vehicle for class discussion. Quote the passage and write a few sentences explaining WHY you chose it and WHAT you’d like us to discuss in it.

3.) “I watched you leap and laugh with these children you barely knew, and the wall rose in me… that you submit to a loss of time.”(Coates 92). I chose this passage because I think that this shows an immense amount of personal growth in Coates. It must have taken a lot of self-reflection to be able to recognize that the environment in which his child would be growing up in would not be the same as to what he was raised in. It shows his strength of character to be able to not fall into the tradition he has always known and instead decide to give his child the chance to be different. If more black parents had a safe environment in which to allow their children to also act this way, could this tradition eventually decline in the country? Or would the tradition still be perpetuated by the fear of the parents for their children?

Read “Black and Blue,” an early Ta-Nehisi Coates (link and class handout) newspaper article that reports on Prince Georges County and police brutality. It is nearly 20 years old and written when Coates was just 25. In 2020, what does Coates’ reporting tell you? Why?
4.) Coates’ reporting on the death of Prince Jones tells me that for being so young, he certainly did thorough research into the topic. His research demonstrates that this kind of brutality has been evident for a long time in America, especially in PG County. Additionally, in light of more recent events such as George Floyd, that just goes to show that the problem really hasn’t gotten a whole lot better. Usually when articles become this old, the information in them gets outdated as well as new developments arise. The fact that this article is still relevant to today’s society demonstrates how far the country has to go. “In over 30 years as Commonwealth attorney for Fairfax County, Robert Horan had never charged a police officer with a crime. After investigating Jones’ death, he declined to break with tradition.”(Coates Black and Blue). This quote from his article shows how important this case was to him that he decided to break with this long tradition.