Fighting Racial Inequality In Coates' "Between The World And Me" And Baldwin'S "The Fire Next Time"

African American Authors, Ta-Nehesi Coates of Between The World and Me and James Baldwin of The Fire Next Time are both same descent, and both fight for the equal rights of colored people between the races.

In their books, they address the problems of inequality of the African American people and present solutions to solve the problems in the past, present, and the future. However, their ideologies were different to counter the maltreatments being done to the African American people. Both books, Between The World And Me and The Fire Next Time are similar in the topics they want to relay to the readers.

The books are written in the form of letters to a younger generation, the sense that the younger generation has the ability to make change. Coates’s Between The World and Me is much longer, and the letter is addressed to his son as opposed to a nephew to which James Baldwin wrote his letter to. Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time tackles the subject of hate towards the man and his race, as he is seen as less of a human being in a world that he helped create, but under limitations and bondage. The Book also tackles the hindrance that the white man put on the black man, and their lives are predetermined before their birth into the world, into a cruel system that the white man turns a blind eye to

However, regardless of the likeness between Coates’ and Baldwin’s respective books, it is vital to understand the main distinction in their key ideas. Coates’ Between The World And Me uses the more drastic approach to the issue of racism, it gives the certain knowing that there is no hope for black and white people to set aside their differences, whereas, Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time resonates the approach of love and acceptance. The fact that Coates wants to relay is that black people need to accept the reality that racial injustice will always be an issue that will not disappear anytime in the near future. Baldwin is positive and hopeful for a brighter future, but Coates is in disbelief that the actuality of racial injustice is not going to change in the future.

Baldwin touches more on the subject of religion and Harlem crimes, Coastes talks more on the subject of actual injustice done to black people in more conventional ways, such as the harms law enforcement inflict in our current society. James baldwin speaks directly; his knowledge explains and identifies his ideologies of love and acceptance, not complicate it. He speaks personally “in order for me to achieve the life I wanted, I had been dealt, it seemed to me, the worst possible hand”(Baldwin 24).

Accepting the fact that the lives of people like him are pre-determined before birth. His is the voice, in more ways than one, of the witness: in the reportorial sense of a journalist filing a first-hand account, but with the moral surety of a congregant testifying his faith. It is that sense of witness that connects Baldwin's work to the thousands who have taken it upon themselves to alert the world and battle the injustices of today, and they too, the masses speak as witnesses to the injustices.

As Baldwin relays his message and ideologies to the world of the past and present, he makes them disinvested observers – often, the outrage is happening right where they live, adding a special sense of urgency and poignancy to Baldwin’s words. In a world where he was despised by the white man, he made it known that his sexuality in men was not a secret to the public, he accepted himself. He embraced every chance to grasp people in one-on-one and open topics about the issue of race. He was a man of the world, which means that in everything he wrote, there was a deep sense of humanity attached to his words and excerpts.