Junchen Liu

Instructor Lisa Diomande

English 11000
Summary and Response Essay
It is generally recognized that nowadays, in our society, the topic about racism
has always been an controversial topic discussed by people all over the world. In the
article The Secret Lives of Inner-City Black Male by Ta-Nehisi Coates, different
arguments held by different politicians toward racism are presented to us by the
author, furthermore the author also discusses his opinions toward those arguments and
toward the topic of racism. According to the author, racism in America is very
common, He states that Racism is just the wind, here. Racism is but the rain. That
is, It has to be noticed that in the article, the author points out the problem about how
in the society, it is commonly accepted that black people are lacking in virtue, he also
points out how it can be changed if certain things can be done.
The whole article begins with a real life example related to the authors personal
story illustrating how racism is very common in the United States. The story is about
how the author and his son were not able to get on a taxi as a result of their skin
color.That is, the cab ignored and went pass through the author and his son, then went
on to pick up two white women. And as a result of this experience of the author, it
evokes the author to think more about the racism problem in America. therefore he
goes on to present us with different arguments and attitudes that politicians held
toward the problem of racism in America, he also gives us his own stance in this
problem. There are three main points in this article. That is, according to the author,

even though hes raised in a certain way but he is now living in a different
environment, so he has to have different practices, which are to act properly. Then the
author goes on to express his opinion about the president Obamas attitude toward
black which is that Obama dont pay attention to the problem of the discrimination
faced by black people. Finally, the author explains and explores the implicit message
spoken Paul Ryan and how this message affects the society.
In the article, the author wrote : I think, 15 years ago, with nothing to lose, I
would have made a different decision, if only because the culture of my young years
made a virtue of meeting disrespect with aggression. That is, after experiencing the
unfair treatment by the cabbie, the author was very angry and wanted to approach the
cabbie but he did not do what he wants to do. The author also states that if he is 15
years younger, he will probably follow his own desire because the environment in
which he was raised up. According to the author : if only because the culture of my
young years made a virtue of meeting disrespect with aggression.this culture was not
wrong--the price of ignoring disrespect.............I now live in a different environment. I
now have different practices. Therefore, what calls for the special attention is that
even though the author himself was taught to act in a way that his reaction toward
disrespect is usually aggression, he did not use aggression toward the cabbie because
hes living in a different environment and playing a different role; for example, he is a
father to his son and his son was with him at that time, therefore he has to be a good
example to his son. Because of those differences, he is able to suppress this feeling of
aggression and act in a different way. This changes of reaction of the author between

the past and now shows the authors point that the environment in which he is living
in is important to how he acts. Same things applied to any other black people, so if the
black people can be put into a different environment or raised up differently, the way
of how they act might as well be very different.
Another main point that the author expresses in this article is related to the
president Obamas attitude toward black people.According to the author : It was
short of stunning to see the president give a speech on the fate of young black boys
and not mention the word racism once......Nothing keeps a young man out of trouble
like a father who takes an active role in his sons life. that is, what the author was
saying is that Obama does not mention anything about the discrimination that black
people faced everyday. Instead when dealing with the problem related to black people,
Obama only pays attention to one-side of the problems while ignoring what really
matters, which is the problem of racism.Therefore, if politics can be changed and
things can be done to deal with the problem of racism, the situation regarding black
America might be as well very different.
The third point conveyed by the author is related to Paul Ryans speech about the
lack of virtue among black people. According to the author : But Ryans point- that
the apathological culture has taken root among an alarming portion of black people- is
basically accepted by many progressives today. that is, Ryan believes that many of
the black people has the problem of lack of virtue, and this problem is generally the
result of the bad black culture. According to the author, Ryans implicit message states
that what causes the black culture to be bad is the low incomes in black family. And

the message has been accepted by many people. However, what calls for special
attention is the authors view, according to the author : But is the culture of West
Baltimore actually less virtuous than the culture of Wall Street? Ive seen no such
evidence. That is, the author does not think that a rich culture will have more virtues
than a poor culture. however, because of this commonly accepted message, and also
because of the current government policies which are keeping black people from
achieving better. Black people are still suffering from poverty and discrimination.
Therefore, from what has been discussed above, we may safely draw the
conclusion that the author was concerned about the current situation of black America
and the problem of racism in America society. He believes that the American society
should not only pay attention to one-side of the problem about black America, but
instead, they should also look at the other-side of the coin which is the discrimination
of black people. That is, instead of blaming everything on the family income and the
culture, the American government should actually do something to fix the problem of
racism and change the current situation of black America.