Issues of Black Life in the Literary Works of Ta-Nehisi Coates and June Jordan

Ta-Nehisi Coates and June Jordan are renowned black writers. It is true that they both write about black life, but their writings significantly vary in terms of perspective, thought process and issues of black life. We can get an evidence of this fact from their two publications, Between the World and Me and "I am Seeking an Attitude". In the book Between the World and Me, Coates illustrates himself as an educator, and in the article "I am Seeking an Attitude”, Jordan portraits herself as a political activist. However, both of the writings feature the central theme of black life. Specifically, Coates, in the shoes of an educator, explains black life occupied with only fear and struggle, whereas Jordan, as an activist, tries to lift the current status of Black women urging them to fight for their rights and identity.

Since Coates is illustrating the struggle of black life, pessimism rolls through his book. However, Jordan's article starts off with the extreme pessimistic tone, but at the end, she lifts up the tone towards optimism by advocating for Black women to fight for their rights. Having grown up in an environment where there was fear and risk of life in every moment, Coates's pessimistic tone is fully justified. He expresses the degree of his hopelessness when he asserts, "To be black in the Baltimore of my youth was to be naked before the elements of the world, before all the guns, fists, knives, crack, rape and disease" (Coates 12). He is recalling the time when he was always insecure about his life, and when he always viewed the world as a commonplace for brutality, disease and violence.

On the contrary, Jordan builds her article by making women aware about how they are left behind in the world and how they have been neglected and abused. After making Black women realize their status, she opens up her role of an activist, as she urges every woman to find her pride in her gender and "show" her "power" (Jordan 101). She ends the essay with an expectation that women will show their power and justify the fact that they are the majority of people on the planet. Coates, in the pursuit of expressing reality, uses a pessimistic tone, and Jordan uses both tones to depict the status of Black women in society and to motivate them to move ahead in life.

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Additionally, Coates and Jordan have different groups for attacking with their criticism. Coates and Jordan criticize people or the government system for the circumstances black people have to face. Coates only uses the tool of criticism to blame the biased government and people who believed to be "white", but Jordan, as a political activist, uses a lot of satirical and critical methods against those people who are responsible for the lagging role of women in society.

In Between the World and Me, Coates criticizes the people who believe they are "white" He believes that they are the main cause of racial prejudice. He argues that, “ “White America” is a syndicate arrayed to protect its exclusive power to dominate and control our bodies" in the text to simulate the situation when people believed to be "white" raped black mothers, chained black men and exploited every black people(Coates 45). Moreover, he criticizes government inability to abolish racial discrimination even after Emancipation Proclamation and claims that segregation is "engineered by government policy" (Coates 53).

However, in Jordan's article, she makes a lot of use of satirical methods in addition to critical methods. She demonstrates how our government system has been inefficient and unconscious for the empowerment of black women. She makes a mockery of government by citing the context when government valued “oil” more than the life of 20,000 raped Muslim people in Yugoslavia. She even satirizes the first black women leaders, mentioning "when you get to be powerful you lose your gender identity above the neck and you just can't remember the very common horror of rape” (Jordan 98). Jordan is viewing government and black women having major roles in government as her major audience, so she makes a mockery of them to show their inefficiency. However, Coates only makes the use of criticism to attack the government and the people who believed they are "white".

Ultimately, both essays have a common objective to make readers realize about the miseries of black people. However, both writers have different routes for making the audience acquainted with the tragedies of black people. Coates has a realistic approach as he does not hope that the racial inequality will be completely abolished in the future. Moreover, he rarely uses the word "we should" or "we ought to." This suggests that he does not want to be a leader. He is not expecting his audience to follow in his footsteps. He tries to be an educator and let his readers find their own solution to the problem of racial discrimination.

On the contrary, Jordan acts as a political leader and she is full of expectations for her targeted audience. She is inspiring every woman as she charges them, "to live and die for the sake of [their] self- determination?" (Jordan 100). As Jordan is always trying to converse with black women, the article seems to be perfect for mass speech. Jordan tries to encourage every woman to undertake something to show their pride, but Coates remains silent and does his job of making situational awareness.

Although both Coates and Jordan thoroughly suggest that black life matters, both writers exhibit different issues, tones and types of criticism towards contemporary society. Coates explains the pain that reigns within the soul of every African American while Jordan seems to advocate women to show their power and pride. Coates hides his role as a leader and focuses more to educate, whereas Jordan wants to develop herself as a woman leader for women's development. In the end, both authors offer a varied and unique position on black life that all audiences should hear.

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