Racial Hegemony in Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me
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Department of English
Abstract
This research paper explores the issue of the suppression, exclusion, and
struggle of Afro-American people in America. It presents the condition of Afro-
American people in the contemporary Baltimore society where they were dominated
in terms of their skin color. It investigates how the American white elitist consistently
denied the humanity of blacks in order to maintain their superiority in the society.
Social, political power and position as well as religious norms and values imposed by
the white people are the cause to marginalized black communities in America. To
illustrate these things, this research takes upon the narration of the incidents faced by
Ta-Nehisi Coates as a victim. In addition, to clarify white elite's supremacy,
construction of classand race, the researcher draws a concept from subaltern
theorists such as Antonio Gramsci, Homi K. Bhabha, Gyatry Chakravorty Spivak, and
so on. By analyzing the oppression of subaltern voice and racial hegemony, this
research presents that the root cause of racism is political and cultural hegemony
rather than fatalistic concerns as represented in the memoir. Therefore, it gives a
message to black people for resistance in order to rectify the subtle forms of
hegemony imposed on such subaltern groups of people in the society.
Key Words: Racial hegemony, Superiority, Bitter struggle, Suppression, Political
power