Across
- 1. However you call it, the result was our _____ before the criminal forces of the world.
- 5. (noun) - the fact of surpassing all others; superiority
- 8. Coates writes that the mother's anger (from her son being murdered) was away from revenge and toward _____.
- 9. In Between the World and Me, Coates gives his own _____ of the experience of Black people in America.
- 11. Black people unfairly imprisoned and killed showed how poor the _____ and government systems were.
- 12. Slavery was the opposite of _____; it was a system built on cruelty and injustice, not moral righteousness.
- 14. "And whereas most other historically black schools were scattered like forts in the great wilderness of the old Confederacy, Howard was in Washington, D.C.—Chocolate City— and thus in _____ to both federal power and black power." (40)
- 15. The question is unanswerable, which is not to say _____. (12)
- 24. What the American "Dreamers" assert over Black bodies.
- 25. Coates explains how his neighborhood in West Baltimore as a kid was full of fear that was covered up through activities like cursing and smoking because of the _____ Americans have done to them, causing that fear.
- 27. Coates critiques how society tends to _____ Black pain—giving honor or value while ignoring true justice.
- 28. The dispersion of Black people from Africa to many parts of the world (mainly America).
- 29. The treasures of African _____ were lost in enslavement.
- 30. Describes the persistent force, like the gravity, enslaving Black bodies, in the American galaxy.
- 32. "In this way, racism is _____ as the innocent daughter of Mother Nature, and one is left to deplore the Middle Passage or the Trail of Tears the way one deplores an earthquake, a tornado, or any other phenomenon" (7)
- 34. During Coates's time, the prison-industrial complex was a _____ business that profited from incarcerating Black bodies.
- 35. Coates's writing shows that what is _____ (seems to be but may not be) can hide complex truths.
- 37. In France, Coates reflects and realizes he was part of America’s racial equation, even if it wasn't a role he __________ (liked).
- 38. In West Broadway, Coates felt a _____ rush, fascinated by the world of elegance, freedom, and posssibility he observes but doesn't fully belong to.
- 39. Coates critiques how _____ systems like policing, racism and schools often fail Black and mixed communities at the city level.
- 41. Coates felt his body was _____ by history and policy, trapped within a tight space.
Down
- 2. Coates says how each time a police officer engages Blacks, injury, maiming, and even death is possible.
- 3. Coates critiques the _____ that justifies systemic racism and the oppression of Black bodies in America.
- 4. In the days after, I watched the ridiculous _____ of flags, the machismo of firemen, the overwrought slogans. (87)
- 6. A powerful realization or moment of truth, like when Coates grasps the fragility of the Black body in America.
- 7. Coates's book inveighs on the terrible racism towards and disembodiment of black people.
- 10. The girl with long dreadlocks was the first one who healed and protected and protected Coates's _____.
- 13. Coates loved Malcom X because he made race clear, never mystical or _____, because his ideas were based on real, physical facts.
- 16. Coates writes about how pain and fear can _____ into wisdom and understanding over time.
- 17. To be _____ means to embody or represent something in a physical form—like the Black body showing history and resistance.
- 18. (noun) - a right or privilege exclusive to a particular individual or class
- 19. Coates and a black man he didn't know were able to have a private _____ that could only exist between two strangers of a tribe called Black, separated from the outer society.
- 20. In America, Coates explains the invisible _____ formed from the chains of racism.
- 21. Coates disliked the neighborhood of his _____ younger self—a place with terrible schools and racism.
- 22. (adj) - of the highest quality or degree
- 23. But this banality of violence can never excuse America, because America makes no claim to the _____. (8)
- 24. (noun) - a person who holds opinions that are at variance with those commonly or officially held
- 26. (noun) - political (originally communist) propaganda, especially in art or literature
- 27. (adj) - relating to the internal organs in the main cavities of the body, e.g. the intestines
- 31. The threat to Black bodies in Coates's America is _____; it's everywhere and impossible to escape.
- 33. The _____ and fights between Black people and white people were rooted in history and struggle.
- 36. Endured or carried over time—like the pain and struggle passed down in Black history.
- 40. Coates's letter and the voice of others serve as a _____ to Black resilience and survival.