Topic > Gangster Culture by Ta-Nehisi Coates - 1567

Living in an environment where the crime rate is relatively low Dreamers do not worry about the daily protection of their body leaving room for their minds to be open and explore everything what life has to offer. Albert Einstein once wrote, “Education is not the learning of facts but the mind to think.” Being an educated black person is not always connected to one's background, many of the most successful people living today have a rags to riches story, but what sets black dreamers apart is their way of speaking, their address and sometimes even their appearance. Black dreamers' protection lies in their voice: "You speak very eloquently for a black person." Or in simpler terms: “You sound like a white person.” A black dreamer's protection lies in his state of dress, for who will kill a man in a suit and tie? When Coates describes his wife's upbringing, he says, “Maybe it was because she grew up within the physical confines of such a place, because she lived in close proximity to the Dreamers. Maybe it was because people who thought they were white told her she was smart and then told her she wasn't really black, meaning it as a compliment. (p.116) These are the people who find themselves trapped in being black but not black enough to be subjected to police brutality. Bell Hooks writes in his essay Gangsta Culture: “On mass media screens today, if