Grin and Bear It

The most prominent black writer in the U.S. today is a man with the African/African-sounding name of Ta Nehisi Coates. He is both all the rage and carries a message of rage. Born in Baltimore, he seems to style himself in the political line of Malcolm X — an implacable opponent of the social system in America which he describes as "white supremacy" rather than the more diffuse term: racism.

Coates, who is a very provocative writer (having in one article re-introduced the question of reparations for the implanting of slavery in America) seems to offer a future of unremitting pessimism to the black youth of the United States: the system of white supremacy cannot be overturned: the imbalance is simply too great between black and white. This despite some countervailing signs: blacks are getting more influential politically (a black President) and in the entertainment and sports world.

The London Review of Books, in its issue of December 3, contains a review of Coates' latest book, Between The World and Me (Text, 2015). Titled "Loaded Dice," it is authored by Thomas Chatterton Williams, a black American intellectual living in Paris, who observes that James Baldwin's solution to the racial sickness that has never stopped plaguing the U.S. — a laborious, courageous appeal to love — hasn't attracted many followers.

Blacks first came to this country in pre-Independence times — in 1619. In no way can they be considered a foreign presence, as some have tried to do with other minorities.

In the Arab World, which admittedly is far removed from black-and-white (and intermediate shades) America, it is the custom when passing a stranger in the street to smile at him or her and get a smile back. It is a recognition of the Arab family or Umma. In the black-white context in America it could mean an acknowledgment that we are in this terrible situation together, and we have to make the most of it.