Interracial Desire and Power in Ellison and Malcolm X

Introduction: Social Power and Interracial Desire

Interracial sexual desire is depicted in both Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Extreme social stratification and inequalities in social power play an important role in the depiction of interracial sexual desire in both works, and also shape the repulsion/attraction dynamic seen between the races. Both books offer little hope for humanitarian, loving relationships between the races, as they frequently demonize white society. In The Autobiography of Malcolm X, white men who desire black women are portrayed as manipulative and often overtly racist, while in Ellison's Invisible Man such men are often simply well-meaning but misguided. Both Malcolm X and Ellison depict white women who desire black men as symbolizing the white impulse to "slum," drawn to the stereotype of black men as powerful lovers, while black men who desire white women are shown to symbolize the black desire for white power and social status.

Ellison's Invisible Man tells the story of a young, nameless black man who travels throughout the United States in the mid-twentieth century. He is expelled from a Southern Negro college for accidentally revealing some of the harsh realities of black life in the South. He moves to New York City and becomes a spokesman for a social activist group, but eventually retreats from the violence and confusion of that world. Throughout the book, the narrator continually searches for truth and meaning, and is constantly thwarted in that attempt.

The Repulsion/Attraction Dynamic and Social Stratification

Interracial sexual desire in both Ellison's book and Malcolm X's autobiography is played out against a backdrop of extreme social stratification and inequalities in social power. In both books, African Americans are presented as largely powerless and socially "inferior" to whites. Racism is prevalent and often rampant, and African Americans are seen as belonging to a lower social class. They are largely poorer and less educated in comparison to their white counterparts, and are not afforded the same social and political freedoms. This stratification is reinforced by brutally racist acts, such as the burning of houses and the beating and lynching of African American men. Within both books, African Americans are treated as inferior to whites within the prevailing social structure.

The repulsion/attraction dynamic seen in interracial sexual desire in both works can be largely understood in the context of social power and stratification. In the social order depicted in both books, the white social class is seen as powerful and superior, while the black social class is seen as powerless and inferior. Any interracial sexual attraction that arises between these classes is therefore tinged by that social dynamic. Whites who feel attracted to African Americans must contend with a sense that such attraction crosses a forbidden boundary of class and status — generating both desire and repulsion simultaneously.

Works Cited

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. Vintage, 1995.

Malcolm X. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. African-American Images, 1987.