James Baldwin wrote his book The Fire Next Time in 1962 during the Civil Rights Movement in America. Ta Nehisi Coates is a more modern author but he still talks about how race has impacted people 50 years after achieving so-called 'equality'. 

Baldwin's book started with a letter to his nephew that brought me to tears. In essence he was saying that the world was going to try to bring him down but he needed to remember to stay true to himself. He writes about his family history, how people say that they're far removed from bigotry and hate, but they aren't. Baldwin writes this letter on the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. He writes, "you were born where you were born and faced the future that you faced because you were black and for no other reason," (Baldwin 7). He writes that in this time, you're not going to amount to anything, not because you can't but because the system has an expectation. Baldwin talks a lot about history, he mentions Jim Crow, but most importantly he talks about using history and not drowning in it (Baldwin, 81). One of the things I liked most about James Baldwin was his use of love throughout the short book. He asks, "isn't love more important than color?" (Balwin 71). Not only then, but he also writes that "Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without," (Baldwin 95). Baldwin had learned from leaders of the civil rights movement, from Malcolm X and Honorable Elijah Muhammad. He learned, on pages 66 and 67, that people did believe that black men were perfect and they could and have ruled the world before. He wrote about how white men had hidden this power from them cruelly and deliberately (Baldwin 69). It's not an optimistic picture. While he writes about love, he writes about the opposite of love that had been shown to black people by white people throughout history. His account seems to present itself as more factual rather than talking about emotions. His work follows a rather logical line of thinking. 

Ta-Nehisi Coates was born in 1975, after a lot of the Civil Rights Movement had ended (has it ever ended?). The way that Coates writes feels more personal. It's a reminder, for those who need it, that there is a human that has been treated differently because of the color of his skin. Coates' Between the World and Me part 1 is written to his son. He starts off by talking about a question he received during an interview, how he felt that it immediately became about his own body which is a private matter. He talks about how race is a socially defined concept, how "race is the child of racism, not the father," (Coates 7). Coates seems to appeal to the humanity of people, playing on emotions. He mentions the names of numerous people who have died as a direct result of a kind of racism as opposed to Baldwin who seems to try to remove himself, even if in reality he will never be able to. Coates writes about his fear, his fear not only for his fellow family members but for himself (Coates 14). Towards the end, he writes to his son about how much he loves him and the world but "you are a black boy, and you must be responsible for your body in a way that other boys cannot know," (Coates 71). 

Coates wrote that he "didn't know what it was like to grow up with a black president, social networks, omnipresent media, and black women everywhere in their natural hair" (Coates 21). I've talked a lot about race in my sociology classes, specifically about mass incarceration in a Police, Courts, and Corrections class. One thing that I've always found heartbreaking is the black version of "the talk,". It's about how black parents have to prepare their kids for kinds of racism, like microaggressions, or routine traffic stops that have the potential to go wrong. The world is not true and fully equal. Race, while it isn't real, has still fostered real aggression.