I am still only starting, Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehasi Coates but I can already tell that it is very powerful. I liked the quote from class said, “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”. This is how we lose our softness. This is how they steal our right to smile. No one told those little white children, with their tricycles, to be twice as good” (90). When I think of this I think back to a picture I saw on Twitter awhile back. It was an animated picture of a black couple telling their son to listen to anything an officer says because all they want is for their son to come back home safe. It’s sad because police are supposed to make people feel safe, but instead whenever we see them we feel afraid. I think African Americans have to act “twice as good” because the police mostly all blacks as thugs. When I think about the thugs topic, I think about when we talked about athletes in class. I personally think about Allen Iverson because he was a great athlete but his image was still overshadowing his athleticism because of his tattoos, style, and attitude. One person that I can think of that build his image and isn’t considered a thug is Will Smith. In Smith’s films he is kind, helpful and funny. He also doesn't have hostile behavior so that’s probably why he is deraced. He has his funny personality to show his black side but other than that I think people view him as more white than black.

-        Miny