Summary

When Ta-Nehisi was young, his father was his hero and his religion. He wanted to be just like him. Coates writes that his first beating with a very thick black belt was at age six. The beating was the result of a call from school about his behavior. As he matured, how he felt about his father would change from day to day. Coates recalls that on the days he had to work in the publishing business he sometimes wished his father would disappear.

After Ta-Nehisi graduated from high school and was, in the eyes of his parents, a man, he saw his father anew. Coates viewed Paul as self-righteous and still a Panther who ascribed to the tenet of free love. He lived his life obsessed with the world he wanted not the world that was. The family had been pushed into isolation...