The Plight Invisibility [Genres]

The Plight Invisibility

No, I have never seen a light so bright

As darkness filled my days with pleasant shade

Until their blindness cut straight through my night

Once, Ebony latched on and held on tight

But soon the sun shined through her blackened veil

No,I have never seen a light so bright

The sun scorched through my freedom and its height

I once fed on the golden paths it made

Until their blindness cut straight through my night

They walk through me, ignoring my insight

A color, another copy made

No, I have never seen a light so bright

Until their blindness cut straight through my night

Dear Potential Sight,

 I write this in a great abyss. Not the physical, never-ending superstitious kind, but a great, maroon void that emerged from inconsistent thoughts…

      I am not close to it. I don’t know what it feels like or what I should do to get to it. It just hangs on my shoulders, never explicitly affecting my actions, but it is always near; this abyss. It brings about frustration and aggression that always seem to be of great urgency. But from a higher perspective they are not worth the time or energy.

     The void craves attention. I’ve always had to give it what it wants or consequences are sure to follow. I obey aptly as it whispers to me its commands. This is the point of no return they say; when we begin to look for escape through other ‘things’. Some try drugs, some relationships, some happiness, some violence, and some hypnotically saunter towards the veil; drawn to its call and performing its errands. The veil is what separates the seen from the unseen. It blocks our view from seeing the truth and clouds our mindscape with low standards and low self-esteems. The veil injected me inside the minds of black children causing them to lose sight of your face. Some have completely fought me off, some still struggle to get rid of me, but still, some are unaware that I have infected them.

    I declare the commencement of a new age. One’s whose sole purpose is not to see how they can succeed behind the veil but to completely rip the veil apart and hinder my grip on society. Heed my word and everyone I have infected will be cured with your hopeful taunts.

                                                                                    Sincerely,

                                                                                     Invisibility

The Plight Invisibility [

Lisa Hayden

AP Lit &Comp/Per:4

Mrs. Romano

21 May 2015

The Shadow of the Veil

In a society that values individual dreams and unique opinions, an American citizen’s identity should be very important. Many people go throughout their life believing that what they do and how they act impacts the world around them. This may be true for many people, but for a significant amount of people in America this is not the case. The majority of the black community is construed by society as a collection of general stereotypes rather than an actual, individual person; or they are invisible. In Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, he develops the narrative of a black Man who, after people label him everything he is not, realizes he is invisible and goes into a hole. This invisibility is described by the protagonist as how people, “see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination-indeed, everything except me” (Ellison 3). “One face” media coverage and the separation of whites and blacks are factors that contribute to this invisibility. In order to get closer to visibility these factors must be abolished.

The media has a tendency to portray the black community, specifically black males, as one face. African-American men and boys appear in the news as thieves, criminals, predators, and violent disturbances and rarely as good students and fathers. Our country is now comfortable with the one-dimensional portrayal of black youth in not only the news but also video games, magazines, movies, and advertisements. This is a result of  the firm grip white supremacist structuralism has on  the media. This grip is deep-rooted in history and has been present for a very long time. In years following the abolishment of slavery, white lynch mobs justified the mutilation and lynching of black men with merely, “we’ve got to lynch a nigger now and then to protect our women” (Ginzberg 210). Messages like this one resonate with the justification of police brutality with their efforts to protect their own mortal hides. Both messages are coated in racism and preconceived notions of the black race causing black boys to be criminalized before they know what a criminal is. The criminalization of black youths creates the perpetuation of this cycle of blacks being guilty until proven innocent (and in most cases they’re never proven innocent). With this prevalent portrait of the black community it is easy to neglect any other opinions about the black community. The individuality of each gem is forgotten and one, single puzzle is seen instead of each unique puzzle piece.

Invisibility is not only caused by the purposeful manipulation of the media, but a subtle undertone that our society is comprised of: the veil. The veil is a concept that is present in W.E.B. Dubois’ novel “The Souls of Black Folk”. The veil is comprised of three concepts. First, the veil “suggests to the literal darker skin of Blacks which is a physical demarcation of difference from whiteness” (Dubois 87). The second suggests white people’s lack of clarity to see Blacks as “true” Americans. And lastly, the veil “refers to Blacks lack of clarity to see themselves outside of what white America describes and prescribes for them” (87). This veil shades the vision of both Blacks and Whites. The veils reference to the physical demarcation of blacks, or skin color, is the basis of racism. The perception of African-Americans as inferior to the white race is a result of white supremacist structuralism, a system of stratification based on the belief that skin color makes whites superior. The invisibility of the black community is caused by racism based on the skin color of blacks and whites. Race ignores words spoken, images seen, and what is in the heart and minds of blacks it instead focuses on skin color; an aspect with hardly any relevance to a person’s identity. This is why the separation of whites and blacks contributes to invisibility. The labels produced, based of a person’s skin color, neglect the individual’s identity and perpetuate the general stereotype. 

Works Cited

B., Du Bois W. E., Henry Louis Gates, and Terri Hume. Oliver. The Souls of Black Folk: Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton, 1999. Print.

Cacioppo, John T., Richard E. Petty, and Stephen L. Crites, Jr. "Attitude Change." Encyclopedia of Human Behavior 1 (2004): 261-70. Web.

Ellison, Ralph. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage International, 1995. Print.

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. “The Danger of a Single Story.” TED. July 2009. Lecture.

Ginzburg, Ralph. 100 Years of Lynchings. Reprint ed. N.p.: Black Classic, 1996. Print.

The Plight of Invisibility

 "The Souls of Black Men" by W.E.B. Dubois contains a lot of information regarding the topic I chose; the how the labeling of black Americans by the media removes individuality and increases invisibility. Dubois defines two terms in his writing "the veil" and "double consciousness". The veil has three points. The first refers to the veil created by the physical demarkation of blacks from whites; melanin. The second refers to the veil created by the way white America chooses not to 'see' black people but instead only views the general stereotypes surrounding them.
Expository Essay Rough draft:
Important terms to define:
Invisibility: According to Ralph Ellison in Invisible Man, to be invisible means to be construed by others as a collection of general stereotypes rather than an actual, individual person.
Source: http://rationalargumentator.com/InvisibleMan.html
I found text evidence: "they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination-indeed, everything except me" (3).
Blindness: Society's refusal to 'see' black people as individuals.
Intro: An attention grabber maybe relating to Invisible Man.
Thesis: The portrayal of blacks in the American media is what creates the invisibility of African American citizens in the U.S.White supremacist structuralism removes individuality from black people.
p1: Invisibility: Establish the invisibility of the black community in today's society.
p2: Blindness: How blindness creates a single story (stereotype). Source: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Ted Talk
How "the veil" is detrimental to individuality. Source: The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Dubois
p3: Pursuit: The struggle the black community faces to overcome their invisibility.
End: The road to gaining the sight of individuatlity of the black community is every present and neverending but it involves both sides to recognize the others' individuality.
Genres:
Personify Individuality and Invisibilty                                                          

The Pursuit of Visibility

Irresponsibility is part of my invisibility; any way you face it, it is a denial. But to whom can I be responsible, and why should I be, when you refuse to see me?" (14). In *Invisible Man* by Ralph Ellison, he presents the narrative of a man who becomes invisible to those around him. The nameless narrator, is labeled through the novel as a pimp, a gambler, a reverend, and many other names. He gets into numerous scuffles, attempting to determine where he fits in with the black community but doesn't succeed. He finally goes into hiding in search of himself. At the end of the novel he is ready to face the world again as the invisible man. The book evokes frustration in the reader. By the end, you wish for the protagonist to be noticed by his society but all his efforts lead to no avail. His story, redolent of the present African American struggle, sparked my interest in
the Black American pursuit of visibility. The pursuit of visibility is very prevalent in American society. Groups who are being discriminated against constantly protest to be heard, to be recognized, to be seen... One thing
  Ellison makes clear is that invisibility is a two-way street. Those who are 'invisible' to their society are only invisible because their society refuses to 'see' them.
 Because of this the focus for my research is how the white supremacist structuralism that refused to 'see' blacks in the 1930s compares and contrast with the structuralism present in 2015. I understand this is
a very broad topic so I need to narrow it down. I plan to research topics like respectability politics, the victimization of black youths, gentrification, Jim Crow, etc., and see how this hinders
 visibility. More than researching society's blindness, I would also like to research the characteristics of blacks' pursuit of visibility. Ellison's protagonist had multiple views on white and black tensions that surfaced throughout the novel. This was caused by the dissonance between his grandfathers black nationalist view and his evident support of respectability politics. This generational nuance coupled with white supremacy intensifies the search for identity. The pursuit is also characterized by frustration or repetitive blocking of ones' goals. Several notorious black orators have had many of their pathways blocked in efforts to gain visibility. I'd like to research the methods people used to breakthrough these boundaries.