Examples Of Cultural Invisibility

Ellison’s points about cultural invisibility are still true today, as research indicates that whites often demonstrate a marked lack of attention to minorities – even visual attention (Brown-Iannuzzi et al. 33). This discrimination takes the form of both hyperattention and inattention; whites will often pay the most attention to African-Americans if they perceive them as a threat, or will pay the least attention to them when not focused on issues of crime, drugs or violence (Brown-Iannuzzi et al. 33-34). These findings provide research-based support for Ellison’s broader cultural point that whites want blacks to be invisible – they see them as either the source of a problem or want to pretend they do not exist in the first place. These feelings

permeate the fabric of Invisible Man, demonstrating the overt white hostility towards blacks that are still true to this day.
One commonly cited way for minorities to uplift themselves within the social structure of America is through academia – achieving an education is thought to be a major way in which African-Americans could uplift themselves to the level of respect required for visibility.

However, as seen in Invisible Man, academic and the college experience is beset with its own set of racial codes and challenges. Much of this has to do with the separating of white and black behavior as yet another form of discrimination. Academia, in its touting of typically-white behavior, attitudes and teachings, forces blacks who wish to achieve that education to psychologically separate themselves from other blacks who might not have the same opportunities or desires.
This kind of tension is illustrated in the narrator’s constant anxiety about how he is perceived by his white professors and staff. When the narrator spends time with Mr. Norton, a white trustee, he gets wrapped up in the self-hatred of African-Americans that he is acculturated into by societal distaste for black culture. At one point, the narrator thinks about the other black people they had seen in their journey and considers finding ways to separate himself from them in Mr. Norton’s

eyes:
“I wanted to stop the car and talk with Mr. Norton…to assure him that far from being like any of the people we had seen, I hated them, that… I believed in his own goodness and kindness in extending the hand of his benevolence to helping us poor, ignorant people out of the mire and darkness….” (Ellison 78).
These thoughts further the cultural narrative that blacks are unworthy of respect or visibility until validated or confirmed by white culture, which the narrator tragically falls victim to at times. The narrator’s motivations demonstrate a sense of internalized racism, in which he supplants himself before his white ‘superiors’ in order to receive basic cultural benefits: “Of course I knew he was a founder, but I knew also that it was advantageous to flatter rich white folks. Perhaps he'd give me a large tip, or a suit, or a scholarship next year” (Ellison 30). This speaks to the heart of Invisible Man’s themes of racism’s effect on black independence and autonomy.