Ta-Nehisi Coates has written a passionate and at the same time painful manifesto against racism with his book "Between Me and the World". In the form of a letter addressed to his son Samori, Coates links American history with his own personal history. He writes about the fact that it is not only a problem of individual misconduct when black people are murdered by police officers in the USA. For racist violence is woven into the American identity - it is what the country is built on. African Americans procured its wealth as slaves and die today on its streets as free citizens. Coates urges people to come to terms with the past in order to develop an awareness of and fight against racial discrimination. His book has become a classic just a few months after its publication.