"Between the World and Me"

This poem is difficult to read. The spirit of a black man living in the country of the "free", is describing his tragic death just as it happened in the woods. Would you burn somebody? Because they're black or white? Because theyr're Catholic, Jewish, or Hindu? Because they may look a certain way or speak a certain way? I hope not. This is doing no one justice in those days. Living in America is supposed to be where you can have a fresh start, a new beginning. Where everyone is treated equally and given the same rights. Yet, based on this poem, I simply don't understand how that was even quite possible. Being tarred and feathered, then to be drenched in gasoline and then scorched with flame is not how we take care of our issues. We do that through word, and the rights this country allowed us.