Ralph Ellison deals with the divide in the black community that isn’t often talked about. The notion that one group speaks for the whole race and they rest of the community is told what to think and do by said group. They become pawns of the group that views themselves as the only true voice of the people. In chapter 22, the narrator is told that he was hired for his oratory skills and not his brain (469). He is to go out there and repeat talking points essentially, because he is told to. He is simply a pawn.
The Brotherhood sees themselves as the ones who tell other blacks what to think. They see themselves as the true representatives of blacks (468). They seem to take this absolutist approach that makes other blacks view them as traitors. This divide within the black community of who speaks for who, and who tells who what to say and think hasn’t disappeared from our society. Brother Jack is a condescending jerk when he says, “Is that all the great tactician has to tell us?” (463). The phrase “great tactician” is repeated with a condescending tone to the narrator who stepped out of line by thinking his own thoughts.
I see similarities to this with regards to blacks in the Democratic party telling black voters to stick with Democrats, to vote for Democrats. That is the party that will help and represent them and their interests. It is a message that has been around for decades. While the Republican party is not the party for non-whites, the notion that blacks should vote Democrat and not for a third party candidate was very prevalent in the most recent presidential election. Democrats have come to just expect the black vote, and in some areas of the country they expect it without working for it.
According to a Washington Post article from Marcia Davis on March 6, 2018, black voters are frusterated with the Democratic party telling them how to vote. In her article she says that there is a “…growing level of frustration among some strategists and voters who believe the Democratic Party has taken black votes for granted for too long.” She goes further in her article by saying, “advocates are demanding more respect, more representation and more resources to mobilize voters. And to counter those who say that the Democratic Party is black voters’ only choice, activists, strategists and candidates point to 2016, when black turnout plummeted: Demoralized voters, it was clear, can and will simply choose to stay home.” This article mentions numerous black candidates who are divining into politics and demanding change. It talks about a needed shift in thinking or the Democratic party will continue to lose the black vote. Davis mentions Stefanie James as saying that she “doesn’t think black voters are going to vote Republican in large numbers, but she does think that they are ready for something more than what the Democratic Party currently offers. “I think there is a third-party mentality,””. The statement underscores the resentment a number of black voters have towards a party who they feel have taken them for granted for so long. They are tired of doing what they are told to do when it comes to who to support politically.
I see the Brotherhood in Invisible Man with a similar lens as I see the current Democratic party. Both tell the black community what to think and expect them to follow. Both believe they are what is best for the black community. In both cases there is understandable resentment and frustration with that. There is resentment between blacks who advocate sticking with the Democratic party, and those who don’t see the party as valuing blacks enough to actually fulfill promises made. I saw this personally when I worked on the Bernie Sanders campaign. Blacks who were for Clinton were telling blacks who were for Bernie that they were hurting their community by not supporting her. A notion they deeply resented. Some of these people didn’t like being told to vote Democrat. They didn’t like being told to go with the party favorite. Ellison in the chapter mentioned above is getting at a resentment of being herded like sheep. I think that concept that he mentions in his novel has some resonance to today with black voters who are frustrated with the Democratic party telling them what to think and how to vote.
Great AfterShocks post (and also, in turn, a nice close-reading of Brother Jack’s repeated condescension in his conversation with our protagonist). Invisible Man’s treatment of the brotherhood as a sort of extreme version of the racial blindness that he felt marked communist politics in years before WWII can easily strike one as extreme, almost exaggerated. But your post is a strong reminder that when under-represented populations are viewed as so many “votes” to be cast rather than as individuals who have distinct needs often rooted in issues of race AND class, any party is in danger. In that sense, the Brotherhood is an interesting critique of all institutionalized parties who have this master plan, this policy vision, that can easily seem abstracted from the plights of the people they seek to represent. Great analysis here!
Make sure you embed the link rather than cut-and-paste the URL. And can you add a picture?