“I knew that they were about to attack the man and I was both afraid and
angry, repelled and fascinated. I both wanted it and feared the consequences, was
outraged and angered at what I saw and yet surged with fear; not for the man or
of the consequences of an attack, but of what the sight of violence might release
in me. And beneath it all there boiled up all the shock-absorbing phrases that I
had learned all my life. I seemed to totter on the edge of a great dark hole.”
―
Ralph Ellison,
Invisible Man
