Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

by Mychal Denzel Smith

One of the more pernicious effects of racism on the psyche is the constant questioning of one’s worth and purpose.

there is nothing more American than confidently doubling down on a mistake.

“I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids—and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. . . . When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination—indeed, everything and anything except me,” Ralph Ellison wrote.

There isn’t a man alive who hasn’t abused a woman in some way. Through outright lies and lies of omission, deception and manipulation, exploitation and judgment, silencing and ignoring. We do this in realms political, economic, social, sexual, professional, and in whatever spaces they may meet.

It’s learning to bend in the places where your self-definition begins to deny others the freedom to define themselves.

It’s wanting to give up every day. It’s loving yourself enough not to.