SEEING BLACK PEOPLE

The legendary Ralph Ellison famously defined the Black experience in, of, and through America in his 1952 novel, Invisible Man.

Ellison called out America’s obsessive desire to not see Black people and substitute our existence with their own prejudices, intellectual malpractice, and projection, that incorrectly and purposely misidentified our identities in the service of their continued reliance on white supremacy to self-define themselves.

Read his work to dive into the mind of a genius sociologist and author.

The issue of invisibility of Black people — and of Latin, Native, and other people of color that white America similarly attack when it conveniences them and/or when a Black person isn’t available, remains with us today in its evolved form that now encommpasses social media in ways Ellison never dreamed of but which his writing can still inform and illuminate.

To speak literally, Black people are seen but only when it is at the convenience of whiteness. And most often that spotlight is negative and with the usual hate directed to a people who wish mostly to be left alone in a state of equality and equity long promised and denied by our nation.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King is only seen in the context of one famous speech which is once a year — and in countless online smug yet lame attacks by incels and racists — used as a bludgeon to remind Black people to dream but don’t dare attempt to make those dreams real.