During my sophomore year of high school in my AP Literature and Composition class we
were presented with a controversial book that had been banned in many other high schools. After reading the book it became very apparent why the book had been banned in some schools; it explored many ideas that had the ability to open anyone’s eyes to the racial profiling and alienation, judgments and stereotypes that exists in our world today. The book I was presented with was Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, a book that highlights the struggles of being black in our society. The book only widened my view on today’s society seeing as though I had already experienced some of these racial profiling and stereotyping myself.
On one occasion, as my family and I finished our food at IHOP, my mom paid the bill and
we left the building among a few other people. As we reached the car the manager of
IHOP runs up behind us saying to my mother, “You did not pay for your family's meal.”
With great annoyance, my mother responds by saying, “I did pay, do you need to see my
receipt.” At this moment, I could see the people that walked out with us pulling out of the
parking lot without being harassed by a manager and I could not help but notice their skin color. They were white just like the manager. The manager responds with an attitude, “It would be greatly appreciated.” My mom pulls out the receipt and looks the manager in her eyes with great disappointment. The manager takes the receipt looks at it and sees that my mother had indeed paid for our meal, and without apologizing she hands my mom her receipt and she walks back into IHOP. We all pile into the car and this is the topic of conversation all through our car ride home. Many people in our society today have the tendency to act before thinking or jump to random assumptions when it comes to races that have many stereotypes surrounding them. The one-dimensional thinking of the manger only allowed her to perceive what many other people in our society perceive. She chose to approach a black family instead of the white family that left at the same time we did, her thinking was because they are black they most likely did not pay for their meal. Who could blame her she was just acting on the racial stereotypes and judgments that many others over the centuries have created around black people. I found it troubling to actually experience one of the topics that Ralph Ellison discusses in the book in that black people are invisible because people choose to already have judgments and expectations of us. We have started using these judgments and expectations on ourselves deteriorating our confidence as people of color. In our weekly in class discussions of the book one of my peers brings up the portion of the book in which Invisible Man goes into a convenience store and he finds a cream for black people to lighten up their skin. My fellow peer wondered why someone
would even want to do that to their skin. However, when I read that portion of book I thought about how so many people today think that having a lighter skin tone makes you superior. I was taken back to the time I’d seen so many posts on Facebook that said, “Light skins are winning” or “Light skins are better” statements that would no doubt make anyone who wasn’t a light skinned feel insecure in their own skin. We already deal with some white people believing that they are superior, however this was black on black racial profiling.
Invisible man not only touched on the insecurities black people have thrust upon them
based on their feeling of dominance he also explores the idea that stereotypically white people are pure and for America to remain pure it should be dominated by whites with blacks in the shadows. This is symbolized in when the narrator gets a job at that paint factory that only makes pure white paint in which a black substance is used to create the perfect pure white. Our society has been based for many centuries on some of the whites relying on others to raise their success and wealth. This was never more evident than through the history of slavery; European settlers relied solely on slaves to produce their wealth. After centuries, have passed one might think that this kind of behavior would not exist in our society. On the other hand, I’ve noticed that some whites are still dependent on black people along with other minorities. We continuously add money into their pockets when we purchase products from their prosperous businesses, which shows their dependence on us. Ralph Ellison clears up all the back handed manipulation and simply states their need for us, to be successful.
Some whites have chosen to use their power to make blacks feel inferior, hence adding to
the expectations of whites dominating over the black community making them more successful and powerful. I remember sitting in my sociology class discussing the different acts of police brutality that have recently plagued our society and familiar names such as Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, and Laquan McDonald. These names were common to hear in our school halls in classrooms, one assignment we had was to read the article that told Laquan McDonald’s story. I remember thinking after all of these back to back instances, "aren’t the police supposed to be here to protect us?" I was already aware of the police officers not following protocol when making an arrest and apparently in these different cases different officers have different definitions of resisting arrest when it comes to black people. Some police officers, being white of course, had not been following the correct procedures when making an arrest, because they were dealing with black people it appears that they already had predetermined stereotypes and judgments associated with us. They see a black male or female and perceive that they are committing a crime, as in the case of Laquan McDonald who was simply walking down the street, later shot and killed while holding his hands up. These police officers failed to see that blacks are not all the same, some choose to be involved with crimes while others simply chose a humane lifestyle, but because we are all black as Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man puts it we are invisible. Blacks are constantly placed in one group in which, so many assumptions are made
and people make judgments on an entire race.
I am growing up, in a world that had predetermined stereotypes, a time when a colored
person is more invisible than ever in the light of all the police brutalities that surfaced, I was
surrounded by the judgments that couldn’t be escaped. I could visually see the realities of the book and I understood the way our world worked. Therefore, Invisible Man took a form on me similar to the narrator, I was exposed to many eye-opening experiences that showed me that I, as an African American, would be invisible myself.
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