“If you’re white, you’re right”: Bone of Contention between the Black and the White as Reflected in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird

Abstract

Racial discrimination can entail overt, direct antagonism from the white community to those who belong to unrepresented racial groups. Discrimination can also be subtly planned out and sneaky. Racism in its subtlest manifestations is evasive and confusing. Many countries, especially Europe and North America, have intense institutionalized racism. Ralph Ellison's popular book Invisible Man, which won the Pulitzer Prize, captures the attitudes of many white Americans against racial rights (1952). The 1952 book Invisible Man describes how the so-called white American culture deliberately and cunningly continues to ignore black people. More so than their Native American identification, it is because of their socioeconomic or cultural differences. We'll talk about the second book from the perspective of cultural racism. Harper Lee also examines the unreasonable attitude toward race and class in her groundbreaking book To Kill a Mockingbird (1960). The incidents in this book have implications for the author's life.