payment page
The third chapter of The Message describes Coates’s trip to South Carolina to help support a teacher who has received backlash for teaching one of Coates’s books. The chapter starts with Coates recalling a time when he reread one of his composition notebooks from early grade school. Coates reflects on the difficulties he had with a traditional classroom. Despite being bright, he recalls being labeled as restless and one who wastes time and doesn’t follow directions. Coates states that he felt that he disappointed his parents but probably should have been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Coates says that the risk of failing would have been cataclysmic, since Black students who dropped out did not “generally go on to better things.” Coates describes the American education system (of his youth and present day) as “less a body of knowledge than a way to be in the world: orderly, organized, attentive to direction.” He admits that these are important skills in life but questions the focus on such skills instead of the exploration of knowledge.
Coates recalls finding much more success at school when he was given projects or book reports to work on, where he had more freedom to explore the information and express himself. He states that he learns best when he can place concepts in the real world. Coates references the article “The Really Big One” written by Kathryn Schulz and how he believes it effectively delivers concepts to the reader. He states that the article “fuses beauty and politics in a way that clarifies our view and clarifies our action.” Coates uses the terms clarify and clarity here again as the responsibility of the writer (as discussed in Part I).
Coates references Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator who wrote extensively on education and oppression. Freire describes a “banking system” where students are given information to hold and then repeat, instead of a system that teaches students to think critically. Coates says that he disappointed his teachers and parents, but a similar system to what Freire describes was not effective for his own education either. Coates pivots to talking about his first years as a writing teacher, working in a prison with Black men who were much older than he was as well as teaching at Howard, where most of his students were Black women that were much younger than him. He focuses on creating wonder instead of strict lessons, stating “students are humans to be challenged, not animals to be broken and tamed.”
Coates describes the difficulty that students face when they feel “endangered” in their classroom. He references the more modern concept of “safe spaces” which are designated on some college campuses. As he thinks about how almost all of his college applications were to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), he realizes that he was seeking a “safe space” to learn. Considering that he returned to Howard to teach, he comments that he has sought (or been in) “safe spaces” his entire life. He next discusses his role as a journalist and how many view him as an exception to their white-supremacist views. He states that the privilege of “great power” is that one does not have to have any interest in those who are oppressed.
Coates next discusses the summer of 2020 and the conflicts that arose in the United States over racial injustice. He recalls the backlash to the “1619 Project,” including the Donald Trump’s Executive Order 13950. The order sought to remove educational content from public schools that included the concept that America was “fundamentally racist” or content that would upset students based on their race. Coates states that by the time it was removed (after Trump was defeated in the 2020 presidential election), half of the states had already created similar variants that served to keep “critical race theory” out of classrooms. Coates comments on the strange nature of a fight that “began in the streets has now moved to the library.” Coates again references Paulo Freire in an excerpt that states that oppressors use the “banking system” of education to keep the world from being revealed or transformed.
Coates describes his experiences with his own books being banned by such legislation and focuses specifically on Mary Wood, a teacher from South Carolina, who had been forced to stop teaching Between the World and Me (one of Coates’s books). He learns that Wood faced complaints from some students who felt “ashamed to be Caucasian.” Coates states that the protesting students were not seeking a warning to be added to the book for its imagery or themes, but that the students were trying to have the book legally banned from the state’s school. Coates reflects on his own experiences with literature that caused him anguish. He states that in such anguish one can find truth. Coates then states that the people involved were not trying to prohibit anguish or discomfort, but enlightenment.
After hearing about Wood’s struggles, Coates contacts her and agrees to attend a school board meeting in her district. Coates is surprised by the amount of support that Wood receives. No one speaks out against his book. He is also surprised to find so many white allies. Coates states that when he started writing, he rarely considered white readers, but indeed, white people were moved by his writing. Coates and Wood tour the state capital, Columbia, and Coates notes that the State House is surrounded by statues of white supremacists (including Strom Thurmond, Wade Hampton, and Ben Tillman). Coates comments that American culture is still controlled by conservatives and supremacists who push back against any form of change. “The fear instilled by this rising culture is not for what it does today but what it augurs for tomorrow—a different world in which the boundaries of humanity are not so easily drawn and enforced.” Coates argues that the “banking system” found in American education and the attempts to control the information in American classrooms is all an attempt to prevent critical thinkers of future generations.
