Ralph Ellison

About this book

This society has structured itself so as to be unaware of what it owes in both the positive and negative sense to the condition of inhumanity that it has imposed upon a great mass of its citizens. The fact that many whites refuse to recognize this is responsible for much of the anger erupting among young blacks today. It makes them furious that whites respond to their complaints with, "Yes, but I had nothing to do with any of that," or who reply to their demands for equal opportunity in a racially rigged society with, "We're against a quota system because we made it on our individual merits" -- because this not only sidesteps a pressing reality, but it is only partially true. Perhaps they did make it on their own, but if that's true the way was made easier because their parents did not have to contend with my parents, who were ruled out of the competition. - Ralph Ellison - Introduction.