Social Norms In Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
Throughout history, there have been social norms that the inhabitants of that society have been required to follow. If they choose to stray from the expectation, they risk criminalization, outcasting, and, in some cases, death. Attempting to silence a particular demographic has been a practice used for ages to remove the unwanted or taboo ideas from a community. That taboo many be race, gender, belief, or any other form of identification. Whatever it may be, the powers of that community deem a group of people unacceptable or substandard, and seek to destroy them in a literal, economic, or historical sense. The recipients of such treatment continue to be oppressed and silenced until they make themselves visible by force. Countless activists
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The policies and majority mentalities of it are constantly evolving. If we are to be, As Former President Lincoln said, “...the last best hope of Earth”, we must accept our faults and use them as lessons to guide our future as a leading nation of the world. Such a nation uses its powers for the betterment of its weak.
In Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, the anonymous narrator is only figuratively invisible, but his voice in a predominately Caucasian society is nearly nonexistent. Even when he is ‘seen’ by white people, it is usually manifested in the form of ridicule and repremandment.
Similarly, the issues of some ethnic groups are ignored by the United States’ government, but the need to remove or displace them is perceived as urgent. A law that was passed in Arizona facilitated racial profiling against Latinos. The American Civil Liberties Union remarked that, “Arizona's new racial profiling law requires police officers in Arizona to ask people for their papers based only on some undefined ‘reasonable suspicion’ that they are in the country unlawfully. If this shameful law goes into effect, everyone in Arizona will effectively have to carry their ‘papers’ at all times”(ACLU). This law and other laws like it are a step backwards for the country and a complete deviation of the values on which this country was
The policies and majority mentalities of it are constantly evolving. If we are to be, As Former President Lincoln said, “...the last best hope of Earth”, we must accept our faults and use them as lessons to guide our future as a leading nation of the world. Such a nation uses its powers for the betterment of its weak.
In Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, the anonymous narrator is only figuratively invisible, but his voice in a predominately Caucasian society is nearly nonexistent. Even when he is ‘seen’ by white people, it is usually manifested in the form of ridicule and repremandment.
Similarly, the issues of some ethnic groups are ignored by the United States’ government, but the need to remove or displace them is perceived as urgent. A law that was passed in Arizona facilitated racial profiling against Latinos. The American Civil Liberties Union remarked that, “Arizona's new racial profiling law requires police officers in Arizona to ask people for their papers based only on some undefined ‘reasonable suspicion’ that they are in the country unlawfully. If this shameful law goes into effect, everyone in Arizona will effectively have to carry their ‘papers’ at all times”(ACLU). This law and other laws like it are a step backwards for the country and a complete deviation of the values on which this country was