Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates is an epistolary novel, written for Coates' son Samori, who deals with institutional racial discrimination, growing up as a black boy, black parenting, the importance of community, and police brutality, as well as the intersections of these themes. Sparked by a moment when the justice system failed to avenge Michael Brown's death, when Samori had to excuse himself to his room so he could cry, this novel is equal parts memoir and survival guide for to be a young black man in this country. Written in moving, lyrical prose, without shying away from hard truths, it is no wonder that Coates made the decision to share it with the world, rather than just with his son. Although the book was written for an audience of young black men, Coates' words will resonate with readers of all ages, genders, and ethnicities. As with other professions, the themes in this book have immense potential to inform school psychologists and their field. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The first and most important topic directly relevant to school psychology practice is the effect of racial discrimination on black childhoods. There are countless studies that demonstrate that racial discrimination has a negative effect on the mental health, as well as the social-emotional development of Black youth. In fact, English et al. (2013) found that experiences of racial discrimination were “chronic and life-long harmful for African Americans.” This is an evident and repeated theme in Coates' work; at the end of the first chapter, Coates (2015) tells his son that he must wake up every morning knowing that there is no guarantee that he will wake up again, so he presents this notion not as “despair,” but as a universal fact. Whether this is indeed a universal fact, the fact that this is how Coates feels and how he is trying to get his son to feel speaks volumes. It's clear that Coates is working through his own insecurities – about being a father and growing up black – throughout the book. However, his words to his son there, as well as shared experiences from his childhood, demonstrate a lasting effect of anxiety and depression created by being a Black boy (and later, a man) experiencing racial discrimination in this country. The effect, however, is not only depressive; Saleem and Lambert (2015) discuss how the effects of racial discrimination also manifest as anger, mistrust, and low self-esteem. This is important for school psychologists to learn from and understand, as these are all factors that likely influence the young Black men who come into their offices; understanding where this comes from could help treat these young people with compassion and help them in a culturally competent way. Fueling this is a second theme, community and black parenting. Saleem and Lambert (2015) studied the importance of racial socialization and the cultivation of racial pride, finding that these institutions ward off symptoms of anger and depression in this group (p. 1390). They also concluded that when a young person is deficient in these departments, they internalize their experiences of racial discrimination, believing that personal flaws, rather than systemic racism, are at the root of the problem. Related to this is the very act of Coates' creation of this book: after observing his son's reaction to an extreme act of systemic racial discrimination, he createdthis book to educate them on how their race plays into this system. Much of this was the contrast between her experiences with her parents policing her black body and her experiences in her “Mecca,” Howard University. While his parents (Coates, 2015) beat him for running away or exclaimed that it was better for them to beat him than the police, resulting in fear and anxiety about his existence, his Mecca was a concentration of the "dark energy of all peoples Africans,” the “crossroads of the black diaspora,” the place where she discovered her community and their history, where she embraced her self-worth and place in the world. As an adult, looking back on his experiences as a child, Coates (2015) concludes that beating him by his parents was an act of love, intended to bring him to safety, but there is little evidence that these experiences can be compared to racial socialization or to racial socialization. cultivate racial pride. This is where the topic connects to school psychology: Saleem and Lambert (2015) argue that “parents and other African American youth must learn age-appropriate ways” to discuss both systemic and personal racial discrimination, as well as using this discussion as an opening to how it affects mental health and stress. They (Saleem & Lambert, 2015) continue this notion by emphasizing that professionals who work with Black children and their families must “empower” them, helping them find resources to discuss and learn more about racial discrimination, as well as training them on how to socialize your children in a constructive and attentive way. While the book gets dark at times, it is an excellent example of how Coates did just that for his son; perhaps this book is a good starting point for families to begin discussing racial discrimination and related issues with their young people. A third theme that should inform the practice of school psychology is the effect of experiences of violence on Black youth. Although Coates does not mention any incidents in which Samori was a victim of racial violence, second-hand experiences of violence are easier to obtain in the modern era thanks to social media and the Internet. Gaylord-Harden et al. (2011) found that as violence increased in an adolescent's life, depressive symptoms, low self-esteem, vulnerability, and suppression of these effects also increased. Similarly, anxiety also increased with greater exposure to violence, as Gaylord-Harden et al. (2011) could lead to concentration problems and excessive worries. While there are currently no published studies on the effects that experiencing passive violence through social media has on Black youth, it is unlikely that the effect will be completely opposite to that studied by Gaylord-Harden et al. (2011). The very content of this book attests to this theme; When Coates (2015) observed his son's anguish over the injustice of Michael Brown's death, not only was he witnessing the toll that police violence has—and will continue to take—on his son, but he is also reliving the trauma of losing a college. friend of the same violent tradition. Coates' experience, although only described second-hand, was enduring enough to still make us think when he thought about his son's experience; Samori's experience of this violence against another black boy who is not described as an acquaintance was already traumatic enough to force him to physically remove himself from the space to cry. This is an experience repeated across generations and, with the current state of the country, an experience that many of the young black people (and young people of color who are not black).