Coates moves away from the journalistic towards the expressionist. Coates combined memoir and history, anecdote and analysis, creating a great shield that conveys the emotional complexity of black society. The letter is a conversation with their children to protect them from police brutality and the excesses of racism. At times, Coates can be seen as ignoring the changes that have evolved over the decades by saying that “you and me” belong to “the one at the bottom,” implying the bottom of the racial hierarchy in American society. Coates truly experienced the negativity of life and that “struggle broke me and remade me time and time again – in Baltimore…” Additionally, Coates was exposed to every negativity the world had to offer. As he stated, growing up in Baltimore, there were drugs, violence and rape. This dangerous part of society influenced his mentality as a young child: "Being black in the Baltimore of my youth meant being naked to the elements of the world, to all the guns, fists, knives, crack, rape, and illnesses" . These examples of injustices that African Americans face are scattered throughout the text. Even if the lyrics flow smoothly, the arrangement