By: Gretchen M. Griener

Gretchen M. Griener — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 14:43:19 +0000

I am so glad to see this sort of engagement spirit with Coates. I’m a White woman from the South, older than Coates, but with Black male and female friends from that time in high school who since have described their experiences in the world different from mine. I am 90% finished reading Coates’ book, BTWAM, and feel Coates immensely but also feel a sense of imprisoned doom in his analysis. He is indeed begging to be convinced he is wrong about his perpetual hopelessness, yet his truths are not untruths. We know this. But, I also kept looking for a higher consciousness to enter in, which has been a critical element of my own growth on the planet and I know unequivocally it is real. Yet, there is the struggle to stay aligned with the higher truths when the current reality keeps staring us in the face. Reparations are most immediately about releasing from bondage the slave mindset that has learned to imprison itself. And I felt the imprisonment of Coates’ mind–after feeling its capacity to fly beautifully and intricately unlocking multiple truths as well as much of his heart. I felt his deep pain over injustices that appear to have no dam and his mantel as a father deciphering the world to protect his son. Yet, for me, I also felt those critical locks on consciousness left locked. I have been in some similar “mindlocks” but when released of them have the flow of intuition, ideas and greater power is undeniable. Perhaps, Coates’ book can actually be seen as a prayer, in such exquisite detail, pain and concern out of such sincere desire to be a good steward on the planet, he is the first to ask so eloquently to be helped. By whom? By all of us who are capable of flowing in that higher consciousness energy to engage with Coates and help us all expand. God usually answers prayers through others after a person has struggled to be enlightened and find hope internal to themselves. I haven’t read your book yet, but am eager to. And I’m so grateful you have engaged. His capacity to share his world and create the question of hope and your engagement with him is an expansion of hope itself.

Comments on: Scholars respond to Ta-Nehisi Coates in new book edited by EMU professors David Evans and Peter Dula

By: Gretchen M. Griener