“For the men who needed to believe themselves white, the bodies were the key to a social club, and the right to break the bodies was the mark of civilization. ‘The two great divisions of society are not the rich and poor, but white and black,’ said the great South Carolina senator John C. Calhoun. ‘And all the former, the poor as well as the rich, belong to the upper class, and are respected and treated as equals’” (104). How do you think this idea functions to establish race – and not class or wealth – as a key division in the mid-1800s in this country? Draw a relationship between Calhoun’s idea and another part of Coates’ text.
1.) This uses race as the deciding factor as to whether or not a person can be successful in their life. This distinction showed that for white people, regardless of whether they were rich or poor, they could still work hard and get far in life, or be whatever they want to be. They could go wherever they wanted as long as they believed that they could do it. Conversely, if they were black, they were seen as less than, and therefore would never be able to get any farther than where they were presently. This connects to when Coates is explaining to his son through the book that the black race is the “below” on which America was built. “It is truly horrible to understand yourself as the essential below of your country.”(Coates 106).
Freebie I. Help us examine some specific part of Coates’ text by offering a Quotation, providing a 3-4 sentence Comment on it, and asking a Question that flows from the quote and/or comment.
2.) “And I saw that what divided me from the world was not anything intrinsic to us but the actual injury done by people intent on naming us, intent on believing that what they named us matters more than anything we could actually do.”(Coates 120). I chose this quote because I think in saying this, it shows a kind of enlightenment that he has reached through all of these years of research and questioning. At first, he believed that race was what had caused the divide between people. But now he believes that the act of naming others based on skin color automatically is the thing that serves to divide people, rather than skin color itself. Although people have attached stereotypes to each of these categories, and have had a negative result, would it have even been possible to not label people? These descriptors are what people use to describe others, but would these descriptions be considered wrong to use if people decided that race should no longer be used?
Freebie II. Help us examine some specific part of Coates’ text by offering a Quotation, providing a 3-4 sentence Comment on it, and asking a Question that flows from the quote and/or comment.
“The people who must believe they are white can never be your measuring stick. I would not have you descend into your own dream. I would have you be a conscious citizen of this terrible and beautiful world.”(Coates 108). This just shows how concerned for his son that he would rather have him know about the dangers of the world he is living in rather than just burying his head in the sand. He acknowledges that the world is a cruel place, but still insists that his son learns about it in its entirety. As a person, would it be better to be ignorant of the awful things around you in order to protect yourself? Or should you force yourself and those around you to open their eyes, whether they want to or not, for the greater good?
Annotations:
“It is truly horrible to understand yourself as the essential below of your country.”(Coates 106). This quote shows how Coates seems to understand where he believes his place is in the world, whether it is just or not. It must be an incredibly difficult thing to have to explain this to a child one day in their lives.
“And I saw that what divided me from the world was not anything intrinsic to us but the actual injury done by people intent on naming us, intent on believing that what they named us matters more than anything we could actually do.”(Coates 120). This idea connects to earlier in the book when Coates keeps bringing up the idea that people believe they are white. He is slowly connecting for himself that labels don’t automatically exist or are the natural order, they arise from the desire for humans to create categories.
“And they would rather reach out, in all their sanity, and push my four-year-old son as though he were merely an obstacle in the path of their too-important day.”(Coates 105). Although I do agree that it was incredibly rude for those people to push his son and then act like that towards him, I don’t know if it actually started out as a race issue. It is all up for interpretation, but could those people have started out by simply being rude, and then escalated way farther than they should have?
Alyssa, nice job on your post! I liked the first freebie quote you picked out because I think that quote kind of goes with the whole book and shows his growth throughout his experiences and life.