The Beautiful Struggle: Gang Violence

Ta-Nehisi Coates’, The Beautiful Struggle, reveals the battles of a young African American boy in his road to manhood. As a young child, Ta-Nehisi was conflicted with his West Baltimore environment because on one hand, he wanted to be involved with the streets alongside his older brother Big Bill, but on the other hand, his father Paul, wanted better opportunities for his son such as knowledge and an education; Ta-Nehisi writes, “we were pushed through science camp, music lessons. Thick books were hurled at us from across the room’ (2008).

Paul Coates was a major influence on his children’s lives, he was a former member of the Black Panthers and was also a Vietnam Veteran however, his childhood was anything but easy.

Paul’s father was abusive and extremely dysfunctional to the point where he had too many children to even remember.  Because of previous experiences, drugs, and gang violence that Paul encountered throughout his life, he made it a point to pursue a high education so that he could provide for his future family.

It was in 1973 when Paul and Ta-Nehisi’s mother “Ma” met at a Black Panther meeting. Just like Paul, she was educated and had a strong character. Although she was younger than Paul and knew he already had children with previous women, Ma still wanted a child with Paul regardless if he was present in the relationship or not. Ma took care of Ta-Nehisi but, Big Bill and her never had a positive relationship. A lot of their encounters together resulted in arguments, but even though Big Bill and Ma had their disagreements, she always pushed both Big Bill and Ta-Nehisi to become strong educated people.

Get quality help now

Bella Hamilton

Verified

Proficient in: Gang Violence

5 (234)

“ Very organized ,I enjoyed and Loved every bit of our professional interaction ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

Despite Paul and their mother’s efforts, neither Ta-Nehisi nor Big Bill succeeded in school and often failed. Eventually, Ta-Nehisi gets accepted into Morgan State University and later pursed “Mecca” also known as Howard University, where his parents forced him to go. Ta-Nehisi grew up in Baltimore around the 1980’s which historically was period of drugs, discrimination, and developing hip hop culture. Crack cocaine had become a popular drug within the time period and it had only made crime more inevitable within West Baltimore. Not only was this drug increasingly popular, but gang violence also filled the streets. Ta- Nehisi writes, “The statistics were dire and oft recited – 1 in 21 killed by 1 in 21, more of us in jail than college” (Coates, 2008), meaning that young children were always exposed to death or incarceration. Since crime was prevalent within their neighborhoods, it was likely that young children would never be able to get out of this harsh environment.

Ta-Nehisi was exposed to street violence at a young age which he could have easily fallen down the path of however, he knew that education and knowledge were important for him to succeed in life. Within the education system Ta-Nehisi alludes to the idea that school systems can regularly fail to meet the needs of their students, especially African American boys. At the end of chapter 6 Ta-Nehisi states, “no matter what the professional talker tells you, I never met a black boy who wanted to fail” (Coates, 2008). It is almost as if society has designed itself for young African American boys to fail, but Ta-Nehisi urges them to break this stigma.

In order to solve any given problem, one must plan out their steps, the five steps in the decision-making process include: recognizing existing needs, identifying alternatives, evaluate, select and implement, and lastly, reflect and evaluate alternatives. Although Ta-Nehisi did not exactly follow the decision-making process in the beginning of his life, he grew to realize what was important for himself. Not only was Ta-Nehisi intelligent because of his father and mother urging him to read, but he was also an incredible writer with poetry. He later turned his hobby with poetry into writing rap music. Ta-Nehisi creating rap music was important for his development because, “when [he] was done with the recital, even though [he] was alone, [he] felt bigger”. By having this ability to pursue writing, it almost pushed him to achieve a higher education despite some failures along his educational road.

Early on in the story it is apparent that Big Bill, Ta-Nehisi’s older brother, does not rationally think before making decisions, “[Big Bill] was a bull, thought in straight lines My brother was not reflective, but that made him unafraid”. Big Bill would engage with many fights without reasoning and this could have been a result of him being exposed to gang and street violence at a young age. Another person that had difficulty with the decision-making process was Paul Coates. He would often think impulsively and resort to violence especially towards his children. According to Ta-Nehisi, “when we were wrong, we felt trapped in a horror movie. We never knew what was coming, how it was coming or when”. If Paul had followed the decision-making process when faced with a dilemma, his children would understand the outcomes and motives, but since Paul frequently thought irrationally, his children never knew what punishment to expect. If given the opportunity, Paul should have learned to be more emotional and understanding with his children instead of always following his aggression.

It is revealed that a lot of his aggression comes from being a part of the Black Panthers so it is possible that Paul could have chosen not to be a part of this group if given the opportunity to change something about his life. The Beautiful Struggle, holds true to its title because it displays the hardships that Ta-Nehisi and his family went through, but instead of falling at these hardships, Ta-Nehisi was able to overcome them and eventually find his road to manhood. He was able to use his struggles as learning experiences. It is evident that Ta-Nehisi had survived the troubles that West Baltimore brought about and had become a strong independent man.