The author looks at race relations when he was growing up in Africa and his experiences in the United States. He grew up when his home country was under colonial rule. He later lived for many years in another country, the United States, that was also dominated by whites. He examines similarities between the two white-dominated societies and looks at how life was for non-whites in his home country during those years. It is a work of comparative analysis in terms of race relations and draws heavily on the author's personal experience. He not only addresses the subject from a personal perspective but also in the broader context of society as a whole. A lot of what he has written is based on what he has observed and experienced through the years, amounting to a personal journey through life in colonial Africa and in the United States. He also looks at his life with African Americans including those who were members of an organisation that sponsored African students to study in the United States. He was one of those sponsored by the organisation. His reflections on race relations have been partly shaped by the existence of racism in the United States as a major problem in contemporary times. The malignancy of racism in the United States was underscored by massive protests across the country by people of all races – the largest since the civil rights movement – following the brutal murder of a black man, George Floyd, by a white police officer in May 2020, an execution that sent shock waves round the globe where there were also protests in many countries in support of racial equality in America; protests the author says could have been the beginning of the second civil rights movement. Never before had so many whites in every city and every state participated in such demonstrations alongside blacks demanding racial justice. And never before had such demonstrations been organised and carried on, on sustained basis, throughout the country for several months. The status of black people in the United States with whom he interacted for many years, prospects for racial harmony and reconciliation and the quest for racial justice are some of the subjects he has addressed in the book, drawing on his experiences as someone who has firsthand knowledge of the subject because of what he went through when he was growing up as a colonial subject in Africa and when he lived in the United States as someone who was not spared the agony and the anguish of being a victim of racism. It is an odyssey that is reflected in the lives of many other people, making the book more than just an account of the experiences of the author alone. It is a reflection of other lives as well, especially of those whose collective identity is also shared by the author.

THIS work is a meeting of the minds. People of different political and ideological beliefs articulate their positions on the question of race in the United States that has bedeviled the nation since its founding. Conservatives, liberals and independents as well as those who don't have any political affiliation or ideological positions exchange views, debate, offer suggestions and provide solutions to race problems facing the United States. There are those who contend that the United States does not have a race problem. It is individuals who have problems and they are the ones who complain about racism blaming society for their own failures in life. Their problems have nothing to do with race. Then there are those who say the United States has a race problem but it is not a major one as it once was. Others contend that racism is one of the biggest and most urgent problems facing the nation. Immigrants from all parts of the world also express their views and beliefs from different political and ideological perspectives on a subject that has divided the nation and continues to be one of the most contentious in the history of the country. There are immigrants who don't see racism as a major problem in the United States even if they admit it exists. There are those who agree with many Americans that racism still exists and it is a major problem. Although immigrants, they also offer solutions to a problem that, from their own experience, is a major one and should be addressed to achieve racial equality. White nationalists also take part in the discussions on race, exchanging views with conservatives, liberals, independents and immigrants. They explain their position and offer solutions to the race question, some of which don't differ much from the solutions proposed by some people who would be considered to be an integral part of the mainstream and not on the fringes of the American society. There is no consensus on the final solution to the race problem, or an answer to the race question, in the United States. But there is some agreement on some race issues that cuts across racial and ideological lines, for example, with some black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean articulating positions that are in conformity with the positions of those who are in the conservative movement, contrary to what most black Americans believe. Other immigrants, including black ones, are squarely within the liberal tradition of the Democratic party. And there are those who don't embrace Republican or Democratic positions but take an independent position on race matters that is also different from the position taken by independents in the American political mainstream. The race question may be far from being resolved. But the views, proposals ans solutions presented in this book may help to point in the right direction toward a final solution to the problem that the United States has faced since slavery.

The author looks at race and justice in the American context, including mistreatment of black people by the police. He contends that although race is quite often a factor in such mistreatment, there are black police officers who also mistreat fellow blacks. He states that it is an aspect of the problem that is often ignored or deliberately overlooked because of the prevalence of racism in the American society, shielding black police officers from criticism as if they do nothing wrong to fellow blacks and as if it is only white officers who mistreat black people and other non-whites. He looks at the the case of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee – that's just one example – where a black man was brutally beaten and killed by five police officers, all of them black, in January 2023 and contends that mistreatment of black people by black police officers is also a serious problem. The five cops were members of the SCORPION, a unit established to fight crime and which targeted mostly black residents, especially men. The author further contends that black people can assume responsibility for the safety of their own communities instead of waiting for the police to do that for them. There aren't even enough police officers to provide security for everybody and for all communities across the nation, he says, which is obvious. A former resident of Detroit himself, he gives an example of New Era Detroit, a group that helps to provide security in black communities in Detroit and whose efforts have led to the establishment of similar groups in other cities including Cleveland, Atlanta, and Dallas, and has even won the support of the Detroit Police Department. He recalls the early seventies when black residents of Detroit in the inner city were under siege at the hands of the members of a decoy police unit called S.T.R.E.S.S. – “Stop The Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets”. It targeted black men, mostly in the ghetto. Almost all of the undercover cops of STRES.S. patrolling the ghetto were black. And almost all those killed were black men, expect two, from 1971 to 1974. The unit was disbanded by the city's first black mayor, Coleman Young, who vowed to abolish it when he was campaigning to become mayor. Some blacks called it “a hit squad” that had targeted black people to kill black people; ironically, targeted by black cops and killed by black cops who worked for a system that is unfair to blacks in many cases. He has written about S.T.R.E.S.S. in his book and contends that there would be no need for such units to combat crime if black people provided security for themselves in their own communities as New Era Detroit is doing today even if on a smaller scale. But there is room for growth and expansion for such community-based security units. He also looks at racial injustice as a persistent problem and an integral part of the nation's history, a nation that was founded on slavery, not on the twin ideals of liberty and equality; which explains why racism still is a major problem even today. He has provided cases to demonstrate the disproportionate impact racial injustices have on blacks. But he also acknowledges that the country has made great progress in pursuit of racial equality. The United States today is not the United States in the fifties, or even in the sixties, he contends.

The author brings attention to one of the most-forgotten leaders of the independence struggle in Tanganyika, later renamed Tanzania, and sheds some light on why he and other leaders like him are not remembered as much as they should be and why not much – if anything at all – has been written about them. The leader was Julius Mwasanyagi from Iringa District in the Southern Highlands Province. The work is also a historical account of Tanganyika's struggle for independence and life under British rule. The independence struggle was going on when the author was growing up in different parts of Tanganyika.

This work focuses on the tragic murder of Patrick Lyoya, an immigrant from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who was shot and killed by a police officer in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in April 2022. The case attracted national attention and drew reactions from around the world. It was also covered by international media outlets including BBC and Aljazeera. The author looks at the murder in the broader context of race relations and at relations between blacks and the police in Grand Rapids and across the country. He also addresses problems of re-adjustment to a new life in a new country African immigrants face in the United States. Patrick Lyoya faced those problems. He also explains, although only briefly, why the tragedy is inextricably linked with the fate of Lyoya's homeland in a geopolitical context where Western countries have played a critical role in determining the destiny of the country which has earned the unenviable distinction as “the bleeding heart of Africa.” He also briefly examines globalisation which he describes as “a new form of imperialism” in the post-Cold War era and how it is used to justify exploitation of Africa's natural resources including the Democratic Republic of Congo's vast amounts of minerals, and how industrialised nations have helped to impoverish the country and fuel conflict there, resulting in the death of millions of people and forcing countless others to flee and seek refuge in other countries including the United States. Patrick Lyoya and his family, and more than 8,000 other Congolese who settled in Grand Rapids, were some of them. Although the work briefly examines the ties the United States has had with the Democratic Republic of Congo since independence in the sixties when the country was known as Congo-Leopoldville, a relationship inextricably linked with the destiny of Congolese refugees who settled in Grand Rapids and other parts of the country, its main focus is on the murder of Patrick Lyoya, why he was killed, what contributed to his murder, and other factors about the tragedy. The uncertainty of the trial date for this case influenced publication of the book. Both sides, the defence and the prosecution, said they did not know when the trial would take place and implied it would be in 2023 and may be even in the last months of the year. They said in November 2022 that it would be many months before the case goes to court, a factor that played a major role in reaching the decision to have the book published before the trial. It complements the author's forthcoming work, “Shattered Dreams: Race and Justice.”

This is the gritty story of one man's lifelong education in the school of hard knocks, as his journey took him from Harlem to the Marines, the Ivy League, and a career as a controversial writer, teacher, and economist in government and private industry. It is also the story of the dramatically changing times in which this personal odyssey took place. The vignettes of the people and places that made an impression on Thomas Sowell at various stages of his life range from the poor and the powerless to the mighty and the wealthy, from a home for homeless boys to the White House, as well as ranging across the United States and around the world. It also includes Sowell's startling discovery of his own origins during his teenage years. If the child is father to the man, this memoir shows the characteristics that have become familiar in the public figure known as Thomas Sowell already present in an obscure little boy born in poverty in the Jim Crow South during the Great Depression and growing up in Harlem. His marching to his own drummer, his disregard of what others say or think, even his battles with editors who attempt to change what he has written, are all there in childhood. More than a story of the life of Sowell himself, this is also a story of the people who gave him their help, their support, and their loyalty, as well as those who demonized him and knifed him in the back. It is a story not just of one life, but of life in general, with all its exhilaration and pain.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race” (Rolling Stone) NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN • NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • People • Entertainment Weekly • Vogue • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • New York • Newsday • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.