Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching Quotes

“And the more the image of black men is connected to everything wrong with the world, the easier it is to justify killing us. Racism comes to be seen as a natural reaction to the existence of black monsters.”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“What would we happen if we reframed the way we understand black male life in a way that took mental health seriously? If we looked outside and didn't see ruthless gangbangers, but teenage boys left hopeless and giving themselves suicide missions. If instead of chastising young men for fighting over sneakers we asked why they felt worthless and unseen without them. If we didn't label them junkies, but rather recognized their need for affirmation.”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“We shouldn't be seeking the respect of an unjust system that will not respect us on the basis of our humanity alone.”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“Our struggle has inspired oppressed people the world over, because if former slaves can make the most powerful nation face itself, there's a chance for everyone else. In a twist, our rage becomes hope for others.”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“Anger is what makes our struggle visible, and our struggle is what exposes they hypocrisy of a nation that fashions itself a moral leader. To rise against the narrative and expose the lie gives opportunity to those whose identity depends on the lie to question and, hopefully, change.”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“To my Newly Forming Black Radical mind, women -- more specifically black women -- had a way of existing without being present. It's a natural result of consuming history and culture through the fables of masculine triumph.”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“He did everything. He studied hard. He went to Harvard. He got married. He had children. He worked. He dreamed big. He pulled his bootstraps all the way up from his humble beginnings to the presidency. He lived the American Dream. And he was called an African Witch Doctor. People asked for his birth certificate. A congressman shouted at him "YOU LIE!" He faced the most recalcitrant Republican Congress ever that was elected by a constituency that wanted to "take the country back."If a black man can be elected as guardian of the American empire, do exactly that, and still not be shielded from racism, what hope is supposed to be left?”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“The nigger is America's greatest asset and its biggest fear”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“One of the privileges of not being a part of a marginalized group is believing you can set your own benchmarks for bigotry.”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“We make a grave mistake every time we invoke the history of oppression to diminish the reality of racism's present. Progress is real, but the narrative of progress seduces us into inaction. If we believe, simply, that it gets better, there is no incentive to do the work to ensure that it does.”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“Anger is what makes our struggle visible, and our struggle is what exposes the hypocrisy of a nation that fashions itself a moral leader. To rise against the narrative and expose the lie gives opportunity to those whose identity depends on the lie to question and, hopefully, change.”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“But the anger has not only drawn attention to injustice; it has driven people to action, sparking movements and spurring them forward. At the very least, the public expression of black rage has allowed communities and people who have felt isolated in their own anger to know that they are not alone. Anger is what makes our struggle visible.”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“And then George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin and I asked myself, “How did you learn to be a Black man?” and I didn’t have an answer. And I went searching my life and the lives of those around me to find one. And I found not one, but many, and they didn’t all make sense, and they didn’t all make me feel better, and yet I couldn’t look away. And then I wrote furious sobering words to try and help me understand - maybe help someone else understand too. And they never felt like enough, and they still don’t. And then Michael Brown. And then Freddie Gray. And then the fire came and the nation didn’t know what to do with it. And Obama couldn’t save them. And we picked up the bricks because the ballots weren’t strong enough, and the glass broke the same way our bodies did, and they finally saw us. And as the rest of the world watches, we still try to learn how to see ourselves.”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“Progress can produce amnesia.”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“As I got older, watching him cling to his stoicism, never softening his edge, never opening up to his pain, made our relationship make sense, but made me mourn for what could have been. Now it isn’t about me, I wish he could be there for himself. And sometimes he tried. Every once in a while you could see him push past his own understanding of himself, and his role as a father, to be the kind of emotionally present man of my imagination. But no one ever asked him, “How did you learn to be a Black man? How did you learn to be a Black father?” And he never had to find an answer. He, like other Black men, let the script guide him more often than not.”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“When we say a boy needs a father, we mean, a boy needs someone to teach him how to be a patriarch. Teach him to suppress. Teach him to be unfeeling. Teach him to lead without asking. Teach him solitude. Teach him not to cope. Teach him to explode. All in the name of maintaining the myth. Every lesson my father ever taught me came back to the myth. “One day, when you have a son of your own,” he would say, “you will understand.” I have no son of my own, but I understand. I understand that my father carried the pain of being abandoned by his father and vowed to not be like him. I understand that my father became the type of father he wished he had. I understand that for him a father was meant to set an example of hard work, that he should pass along valuable life lessons about handling money, that he should teach you how to drive and tie a double windsor, that he should come down hard when you lie or fail to live up to your potential. I also understand that as a shy insecure kid who wanted someone to talk to about his fears, there was a distance between me and my father. As someone who needed to know that I would be loved even through my mistakes, my father’s raised eyebrows, and voice, and belt, weren’t reassuring. His way of buying affection without speaking through his feelings made it harder to get close. His cold reactions to some of my proudest moments didn’t ease us toward embrace. When I tell the story of my relationship with my father, the response I hear most often is, “You had it better than most. Be grateful he was there.” And once again the myth prevents us from seeing. I did have it better than most. I’ll never deny that. My father’s sacrifices meant that I never went homeless or hungry, unclothed or unwashed. Materially, I had all that I could ask for and more — he made that possible. I would not be writing these words today if he didn’t. I’m grateful. But it doesn’t mean the strain and tension between us didn’t have an effect on me - on my sense of self. I didn’t like myself for a long time and much of that had to do with never feeling like I could do anything worthy enough to receive my father’s love. Perfection, if I could achieve such a thing, felt inadequate. I know now that it isn’t true. That he loved me in the way he knew how and he always would. But that’s not what shaped me.”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“A call to detach ourselves from the myth that the only and best way to raise a child depends on the presence of a man we call a father. It’s also a call to reexamine what we expect from fathers, present or not. What’s imagined is Cliff Huxtable trading wit and canned wisdom with his children before traipsing off to a job that enables to provide financially and then coming home to hand out a healthy dose of necessary discipline to keep the children well-behaved. What’s real is that having a father in the home increases the likelihood for abuse for both the spouse and children. What’s real are fathers who are broken and showing up to fill a role that they themselves are struggling to understand. We have spent so much time valorizing the mere existence of fathers we haven’t discussed what type of fathers they will be. We haven’t shown any concern for whether or not these fathers show up as full, healthy human beings.”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“What would happen if we reframed the way we understand Black male life in a way that took mental health seriously? If we looked outside and didn’t see ruthless gang bangers but teenage boys left hopeless and giving themselves suicide missions. If instead of chastising young men for fighting over sneakers we asked why they feel worthless and unseen without them? If we didn’t label them junkies but rather recognized their need for affirmation. If we held our boys close when they cried instead of turning them away to face the frustration, pain, and sadness like a man. If we believed Black boys were worthy of second chances that didn’t involve prison cells. What if? We might start to worry. Then, we might start to heal.”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“I had athletes who, with much to lose, would put their visibility to use for the liberation of Black people.”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“Everything I read, listened to, and learned, validated my right to existence as a Black man in America but only within the confines of a patriarchal definition of masculine identity. What went unquestioned were the ways my newfound sense of Black manhood contributed to the ongoing marginalization of my mother, her twin sister, my grandmother, my high school guidance counselor, and more than half of the student population on Hampton University’s campus. I began to see myself, but only by refusing to see black women. The centrality of the Black male experience and the discourse of racist oppression has been passed down from generation to generation through our politics and culture.”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“Effects of racism on the psyche is the constant questioning of one’s worth and purpose. It can be almost as debilitating as death. Almost...American racism will take some of our lives while holding others of us up as exemplars of success providing the illusion that there is an escape.

We do a disservice to our martyrs by imposing perfection upon them. We do a greater disservice to ourselves, the survivors and potential tokens, by not honestly reckoning with who our martyrs were and who they could have been.”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“One of the more pernicious effects of racism on the psyche is the constant questioning of one’s worth and purpose.”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“someone, some industry, is always ready and waiting to exploit us. It appears innocent enough at first. They even convince us that the arrangement is beneficial for everyone involved. But once you realize what’s happening, that they aren’t sacrificing nearly as much as you are but somehow receiving a larger portion of the spoils, and you confront them about it, they’ll try to convince you that you’re crazy. Where they once sold you on the relationship with promises of wealth, they now threaten you with poverty. And they’re willing to employ depraved measures in order show you just how bloody life is without them. When you recognize this, you have to”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“And as the rest of the world watches, we still try to learn how to see ourselves.”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

“It’s a meaningful shift in language that no longer places the burden of bravery on the marginalized to “come out” to a hostile world. “Inviting in” recognizes that it isn’t the marginalized who should be responsible for the terms of their own identity, but those who have made that identity dangerous to embrace. But”
― Mychal Denzel Smith, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education