Faith in Progress?

I think I can say that most people will say that America has changed, and whether the change is good or bad is entirely up to the person. I would personally say that America did make good progress. For one, slavery ended here in the United States. Secondly, women have more rights than they ever did in the past and third, people are beginning to open up to the idea of homosexuality. Slowly but surely, America is making some progress, key word being “some”. There are many reasons for people to believe that this progress America seems to be making is only a myth because 1. racism and discrimination still exists, 2. there is still inequality between men and women and 3. homosexuals, today, are still experiencing a lot of hate crimes.The root of these problems still exist and that is why people consider this whole “American Progress” a myth.

In Coates letter to his son, he mentions a couple of things that are still existent to this day: racial injustice, racial profiling and white privilege. Coates writes something to his son that just does it for me. He tells his son, “Indeed, you must be responsible for the worst actions of other black bodies, which, somehow will always be assigned to you.” This all feeds in with racial profiling and how some people will immediately make stereotypical assumptions about a person just because of the color of their skin. He concludes his letter by saying, “Here is what I would like for you to know: In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body - it is heritage..” I believe this is the most powerful line in his letter. Coates honestly believes that there is and will be no progress pertaining to black people’s rights.

I, on the other hand, do have faith in progress. Progress, no matter how small it is or how long it takes, is still progress and the faster we acknowledge and accept that times are changing, the faster we will progress.

Works Cited:

Ta-nehisi, Coates, Between the World and Me (2015, Spiegel & Grau, New York)

#quarter2