Invisibility as an Escape From

Invisibility as an Escape From Racial Degradation

There is no point in blinding yourself to the truth. Don't blind yourself," (Ellison 192); one cannot ignore the racial tensions of the United States for they are much too prevalent in every facet of society. Ever since the birth of the U.S., there has been an overwhelming racial stigma which has lead to the degradation and oppression of African-Americans. Even after the emancipation of the slaves, racial stereotypes continued to plague the African-American community, causing them to fight the idea that they are in some way inferior to their white brethren, "The battle was first waged over the right of the Negro to be classed as a human being with a soul; later, as to whether he had sufficient intellect [...] and today it is being fought out over his social recognition," (Johnson 54). This overwhelming racism found within American society forces African-Americans to forgo their individual identity and life an invisible life. One must choose an invisible role to deal with the hardships of American racism; choosing to disappear within the stereotype of the entire black community, or through passing as white as a way to dissociate oneself from the racial stigma intertwined with one's African heritage. This is a racial view of the cultural hegemony in which the African-American community has absorbed the values of the white majority. Ralph Ellison's the Invisible Man represents the disappearance into the deep racial prejudices of modern American life. His narrator uses this stereotype to hide from the extreme pain caused by attempting to fight against such a strong stereotype. James Weldon Johnson's work, Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, represents the other side of the coin. His narrator decides to abandon his African heritage in order to pass as white in society to avoid the hardships of the African-American community.

The shadow of American racism has long threatened the equality necessary for a true democracy to function. This nation was born with the idea that all men deserve equality, yet was quick to deny these essential rights to the large population of African and American born slaves. Early European contact with Africans provided a stigma which still survives in the minds of many Americans today. Many Europeans believed Africans to be the cursed descendents of the Biblical figure Cain. Cain was cursed by God for the murder of his brother Abel. Part of this curse was that Cain, and all his future descendents were to be stained black for their sinful betrayal. Upon contact with Africans, early Europeans associated the African's dark skin with the dark curse of Cain. This was one beginning of the racial tensions which have plagued the United States for generations. The idea of Africans being of evil has followed African-Americans through generations of racial prejudice, and was one of the reasons the institution of slavery was justified and allowed to take place within the "land of the free."

Unlike Greek and Roman slaves, who were still considered human, the American institution of slavery ensured that African-American slaves would never be considered as anything more than property. They were stripped of their human characteristics and demeaned into simple objects to be possessed and worked for the good of their white masters in the form of slavery known as Chattel slavery. This was the only form of slavery which was so intent on demoralizing those who were enslaved. In the United States, race has long distinguished one's place in society, just as class does in most other nations. African-Americans have been haunted by their racial stereotype born from the horrors of slavery. African-Americans have always had to fight the preconceived notion that they are in some way inferior to their fellow white countrymen. In this version of slavery, the one-drop rule ensured that anyone with the slightest amount of African blood within their veins were to be considered the same as if they were fully black. Thus, many of mixed blood, who looked white, were still considered black.

There have been many attempts to reform the way America deals with its racial differences. Many early black authors went overboard in their attempt to prove their equality to their white audiences. Using both Classical and Biblical references, early authors strove to prove that they had the intellectual capabilities which would dismiss previous beliefs of inferiority. Frederick Douglass embodies this in his slave narrative the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. He also embodies techniques which later show up in the twentieth century writings of Ralph Ellison and James Weldon Johnson; his writing shows his attempt to write not only for himself, but for all others who had similar experiences. Douglass' experiences are his, but also those of all slaves. This is an early form of forsaking one's individual identity for the good of others in his racial group. Douglass essentially looses his identity and becomes invisible within the mass of slaves who had lived a similar life, but could not speak for themselves. As the twentieth century dawned, two major figures formulated two very different ideologies on how the African-American community should conduct itself within American society to raise itself out of oppression.

Booker T. Washington proposed the theory that African-Americans should prepare themselves vocationally to enter into the workforce as a way to prove the stigma of uselessness false. In his first person narrative, Up from Slavery, Washington placed emphasis on the importance of vocational education in the African-American community. By forsaking more academic ventures, Washington believed that African-Americans could gain a status similar to whites through the structure of American capitalism. He believed that material possessions and property could lead to a power, previously unseen by the black community, (Norton 601). Washington's theory was that the black man could raise himself out of racial degradation through proving he was capable of hard work and responsibility, "few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him and let him know that you can trust him," (602). The racial structure of the United States formulated the idea that the African-American individual could not rise to the high intellectual standard of High culture, therefore his place was in the working world, "All men are intellectuals, one could therefore say: but not all men have in society the function of intellectuals," (Gramsci 5). Washington believed that through the acceptance of the limitations of the African-American community in relation to the racist structure of the American society, blacks could actually rise above what the white world had allotted them; they could make a life for themselves through hard work and ambition to succeed in a capitalistic world.

Another monumental figure in racial relations in the early twentieth century was W.E.B. Dubois, who proposed an ideology much different than Washington. In his 1903 work, the Souls of Black Folk, believed that African-Americans should not limit themselves with pursuing only vocational roles, for that would simply reinforce the stigma white America already held against them. It only increased the common place stereotype that blacks could only be so much, therefore reinforcing the forced invisibility in the African-American community. Dubois was an early pioneer of the Pan-African philosophies, and believed that all people of African descent shared a common connection, that the black experience was invisible to the white majority. Dubois formulated an early vision of black invisibility; he told of the veil which all African-Americans were born behind, "Within the veil he was born, said I; and there within he shall live, --a Negro and a Negro's son," (Norton 705). According to Dubois, the black community could see outside the veil, they could truly see the white community for what it was. The white community, however, could not see through the veil into the African-American consciousness. This idea is reiterated in James Weldon Johnson's writings, "I believe it to be a fact that the colored people of this country know and understand the white people better than the white people know and understand them." (Norton 840). One cannot gain true consciousness when one lives one's life behind the veil, "To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships," (701). Dubois wanted to lift the veil and open up the black experience to the white world. However, his efforts in some ways proved futile.

The Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci formulated a theory of cultural hegemony, where the values and beliefs of the dominant class filter through the class lines and are eventually absorbed into the lower class ideology. The lower classes then hold themselves up to the unattainable standards of the higher classes. The oppressed group then internalizes the norms of the reigning oppressors, "The spontaneous consent given by the great masses of the population to the general direction imposed on social life by the dominant fundamental group," (Gramsci 7). Gramsci believed that the lower classes of society were bombarded with the ideologies of the higher class and therefore absorbed their norms and practices through constant exposure of high class values in facets such as the mainstream media and educational institutions. The oppressed then became their own oppressors, judging themselves on the high class standards of life. Through their own regulation, high class norms were used to judge each other on the basis of financial stability, female morality, Christian ideology, and so forth. They upheld unrealistic standards when one looked at the condition of life many within the lower classes were forced to endure. No matter how much they grew to resent the high class for the lifestyle they would never be able to live, the lower classes still unconsciously internalized the beliefs of that class they hated.

This theory is easily adapted into an ideology of racial hegemony, where the beliefs of the white majority were slowly filtered into the African-American social structure. The African-American community began to define itself using white standards. Gramsci himself even noticed "the formulation of a surprising number of negro intellectuals who absorb American culture and technology," (Gramsci 15). Many of the black elite only reinforced white values and racial views onto their fellow African-Americans. This created an unobtainable standard for African-Americans, similar to the lower class vision of themselves, which lead many to question "whether this [the United States'] intellectual stratum could have sufficient assimilating and organizing capacity to give a 'national' character to the present primitive sentiment of being a despised race," (19). The white view of the African-American community was overwhelmingly negative for most of the United States' existence. So, when the black community absorbed the white majority's view of themselves, they adopted a negative image of what it was to be black in the United States, "for the moment, American negroes have a national and racial spirit which is negative rather than positive, one which is a product of the struggle carried on by whites in order to isolate and depress them," (19). Racial hegemony forces some blacks to disappear into their pre-set stereotype, and other light skinned blacks to ignore their African heritage for a chance in a white world.

One escape from the demeaning prejudices of the racism of every day life in American society is to withdraw into the pre-existing stereotype of African-Americans; achieving invisibility through blending into the stereotype of the group as a whole, as seen in the narrator of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. The narrator, who remains nameless throughout the entire novel, reaches his state of invisibility by understanding that the white world does not understand the lives of African-Americans, "I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me," (Ellison 3). This is reminiscent of Dubois' theory of the how the veil is impenetrable from the white perspective, "The invisibility to which I refer occurs because of a peculiar disposition of the eyes of those whom I come in contact," (3). The white community cannot see through the veil into the black experience; according to Ellison, this not a coincidence but rather a choice. Ellison believes that the white community does not want to bother themselves with worrying about an "inferior" view of the world. Is constant contact between the two races, the white community does not see individuals, nor do they believe that a black individual can exist outside the stereotype, "You're hidden right out in the open -- that is, you would be if you only realized it. They wouldn't see because they wouldn't expect you to know anything since they believe they've taken care of that," (154).

The white world does not see individuals within the American-American community; they only see the group, the race. The individuals who happen to be a part of that race then disappear within the group, effectively becoming invisible within the larger group. James Weldon Johnson understood the idea that every black individual was glossed over and thought of in the stereotype which characterized the race rather than the person, "Northern white people love the Negro in an abstract sort of way, as a race [...] Southern white people despise the Negro as a race, and will do nothing to aid in his elevation as such," (Norton 845). Early in the novel, Ellison's nameless narrator realizes that through acting how the white community wants him to act, he essentially disappears from any controversy that any upstart or reformist might incur. The vet which he meets during his trip with Mr. Norton to the Golden Day describes him in this way to the white "philanthropist" Mr. Norton, "He's invisible, a walking personification of the Negative, the most perfect achievement of your dreams [...] the mechanical man," (94). This image is later reinforced when Dr. Bledslow, the narrator's idol, explains to him "you are nobody, son: you don't exist -- can't you see that?" (143).

The narrator in Invisible Man, eventually realizes that fighting the pre-conceived notions of his race only lead to hardship. Consequences come to those who attempt to change the social order, to those who refuse to be invisible, this is represented by the sad state of the vet who had once been a physician," I was forced to the utmost degradation because I possessed skilled hands and the belief that my knowledge could bring me dignity," (Ellison 93). This idea is later repeated in James Weldon Johnson's fictional autobiography; nothing but hardship comes to the groundbreakers who try and change a system which has been engrained into the American psyche for generations. Society wants the invisible man, and all other African-Americans like him, to give up his dignity and simply accept the norm. The figure of Dr. Bledslow explains to the invisible man how it is his duty to "let the white folk worry about pride and dignity -- you learn where you are and get yourself power, influence, contacts with powerful and influential people -- then stay in the dark and use it!" (145).

Ellison twists this advice to form his own version of invisibility. He plays into the role that society allocates for him in order to survive. However he realizes that this technique is selfish and will only save him from the grips of racism, "Irresponsibility is part of my invisibility; anyway you face it, it is a denial. But whom can I be responsible, and why should I be, when you refuse to see me?" (Ellison 14). So the invisible man uses his invisibility, but only as a temporary relief. He understands that he will eventually have to emerge as an individual to fight the group stereotype. He remembers the advice of his grandfather, "Live you life with your head in the Lion's mouth. I want you to overcome 'em with yeses, undermine them with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction, let 'em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open," (16). By disguising himself within the stereotype of his race, Ellison's invisible man effectively hibernates unseen by suspecting white eyes. In his invisibility, he can hibernate as "Jack the Bear," waiting for the perfect moment to emerge out of his hole. "Jack the Bear," (6) references the Uncle Reemus stories which demoralized blacks in the South. "Call me Jack the Bear," (6) refers to the tone of Ishmael in Moby Dick, therefore essentially calling himself the bastard son of American society. He is American born, but yet treated as a disgrace; Ishmael was the bastard son of Abraham who was forsaken to wander the desert while his brother Isaac became the father of Israel. The reference to "Jack the Bear" becomes a metaphor for the narrator's invisible identity; he waits in the invisibility of his hibernation.

James Weldon Johnsons represents another form of racial invisibility in his novel Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. This novel is a fictional biography of a mixed race man who ultimately decides to pass in society as a white man concealing his African heritage. In the novel, Johnson explores the meaning and experience of "passing" in American society. The protagonist of the novel remains nameless throughout the entire story. Just as Douglass before him, and Ellison after him, Johnson's main character is not specific; but rather a broad character type, incorporating an entire group's identity issues in the life of one man. The work does use techniques first seen in slave narratives. Johnson has a tendency to break away from the autobiographical plot in order to explain something about the black experience to the reader. He uses techniques similar to those of his literary ancestors to inform the white audience about what really goes on behind the veil.