Reading Ta-Nehisi Coates

Taught by Douglas Tsoi, J.D. NYU School of Law; founder of PUGSpdx

Want to talk about critical national issues in a safe space? This class is a four-week dialogue about the history and legacy of race relations in America, which we will explore via the work of Ta-Nehisi Coates. One of America’s leading public intellectuals, Coates is the author of Between the World and Me, which he wrote as a letter to his young son. The book is an urgent look at race in America, and it won the 2015 National Book Award for Nonfiction and the 2015 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction. Coates is a national correspondent at The Atlantic and a 2015 recipient of the MacArthur  Fellowship. He writes with a bracing honesty about slavery, housing discrimination, the fear and control of black bodies, and the racialized roots of American wealth. Coates' work in The Atlantic, along with responses from The National Review, will be the basis of our inquiries and discussions.

Week 1:  "The Case for Reparations"

Week 2:  “Letter to My Son”

Week 3:  "The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration"

Week 4:  Class choice.

Photo credit: John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation