"White Liberalism" in Invisible Man

Though our discussion of the "white liberal" phenomenon has mostly occurred during the Native Son section of this class, I feel that Invisible Man offers an even more thought-provoking and nuanced spin on the archetype. Mary and Jan might have SOME good intentions, but are crippled by their ignorance of racial barriers with the oppressed, fearful Bigger Thomas, and their general self-indulgent attitudes for acting all buddy-buddy with a black person. In Invisible Man, the narrator mostly explores the dynamic while working with white people, whether it be chauffeuring Mr, Norton, his discussion with Mr. Emerson, or the passive-aggressive revisionist racism of the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood especially goes to show what happens when the tenets of white liberalism are formed into a constructed ideology, which has a sound concluding vision but very poor methods of interracial interaction that result in racist erasure.

Norton's ignorance is from the upper-class educator perspective; he is shielded from the realities of the black world around his campus and is utterly shocked to find the surrounding areas of his campus different from what he promotes inside. Like the others, he thinks himself a friend of the "black people", yet comes across with more of a savior complex than a true ally towards the civil rights of another race. "I felt even as a young man that your people were somehow closely connected with my destiny" he explains to the narrator, on the topic of his educational interest (41). Lines like "Yes, you are my fate, young man" are utterly patronizing and pressuring for the timid narrator, who simply wants to get this interaction over with before anything goes wrong (which is unsuccessful of course) (42). If Norton were a true believer in racial justice that had a good picture of what the African-American community needed, he would not refer to an uneducated black man as a "defective cog" (45), nor would he react so strongly and inappropriately to Trueblood's story. Norton is initially disgusted and appalled, not believing that a member of the race he tries to help could do something so "monstrous" (49). After he speaks with Trueblood and hears in grave detail what exactly went down, his action of giving him a hundred-dollar bill seems much less a gesture of help rather than an exchange for a tabloid commodity: compensation for a good shock. Perhaps his intentions are somewhat justified—after all, what would one do in that situation—yet his incredulity that something like this can happen shows just how unseeing Norton is of the big picture compared to his elevated self-worth for his “activism” in the black community.  

Emerson’s white liberalism is a bit less obvious and harmful to the narrator than the other two, but nonetheless definitely exists. Though at first Emerson seems to be speaking conversationally with the narrator, he feels the need to name drop the “Club Calamus”, a trendy Harlem rendezvous that Emerson clearly prides himself in going to, especially in front of a black guy. Like Stefon from SNL with self-congratulating racist undertones (“Harlem’s hottest club is…”). Later on, he also mentions his “friends are jazz musicians” and that he “knows the conditions” under which the narrator lives, which harken some serious Jan and Mary flashbacks about knowing the plight of the black man and what not (188). The true kicker of the conversation is when Emerson asks the narrator to “speak with utter frankness” towards him, in a fairly unnecessary and discomfiting tangent:

What I mean is, do you believe it possible for us, the two of us, to throw off the mask of custom and manners that insulate man from man, and converse in naked honesty and frankness?

Though Emerson wants to speak with the narrator on normal terms, the way to do so is not to make so painfully obvious your racial differences, but to keep speaking like a normal person. I found this to be one of the most cringe-worthy scenes in the whole book, because the narrator clearly wants to figure out this important message and move on, but Emerson hinders him with babble about being equals and forgetting race when it doesn’t need to be an issue at all! The message eventually gets through to the narrator, but not without some frustration with Emerson’s white liberal self-indulgence and pandering.

And of course, one cannot talk about uncomfortable race relations without referring to the Brotherhood at some point. The narrator’s time with the Brotherhood is so expansive that it’s hard to even pick which incidents to talk about. Their motives are initially hazy when the narrator is grabbed after his eviction speech for the seeming wrong reasons. The first scene in Brother Jack’s lair is loaded with aggressive white liberalism, such as the strong reaction to the narrator being asked to sing a spiritual. Without him getting a word in edgewise, Brother Jack goes nuclear on the drunkard for even suggesting that the narrator would sing a spiritual, and removes him from the premises. This ridiculous reaction to a fairly innocuous bit of racism and generalization shows Jack’s motives are not listening to the black community and incorporating them into his Brotherhood vision, but instead making blatantly obvious what he thinks is best for the race. Jack relentlessly tries to make members of the Brotherhood forget their differences, and having a black man sing a spiritual is out of that vision. The lady that approaches him afterwards relishes in resisting the temptation to hear him sing. “I would never ask one of our colored brothers to sing, even though I love to hear them. That would be a very backward thing.” (314). The narrator is completely puzzled by this, because after all, what is exactly wrong with asking a black person to sing? Sure, the guy that asked him was obviously out of line and thought of black people as jukeboxes, but her and Jack’s reactions are so uncalled for and demonstrate just how blind the white liberal ideology can be. The problem is the guy, not the fact that the narrator was asked to sing! However, the most harmful instances of the Brotherhood in this sense are with Brother Tarp’s leg chain and the death of Tod Clifton. Brother Wrestrum completely meddles with the narrator’s standing in the Brotherhood for receiving Brother Tarp’s leg chain. “I don’t think we ought to dramatize our differences” Wrestrum reasons for his outrage (392). Though it is clear that the narrator wants to keep it as a symbol for himself and the oppression he’s fighting against, Wrestrum exposes the true colors of the Brotherhood: racist revisionism and hiding the truth of history instead of utilizing it for social change. Wrestrum’s testament to the Brotherhood totally jeopardizes the narrator’s position, over such a completely petty circumstance. Finally, their treatment of Clifton’s death is nothing short of sickening. They call their youth organizer a “traitorous merchant of vile instruments of anti-Negro, anti-minority racist bigotry” for selling these stupid Sambo dolls for some cash, when he was gunned down by the police for not having a license (466)! Their real concern is dissociating themselves from anything that could hurt their organization, rather than tackling issues that matter (such as murder by racist police). This is white liberalism taken to its most harmful extent, trying to erase the race card from all given situations and project a different false reality, no matter how contradictory it may be to their original message.

The narrator ends up realizing this on his own later in the novel, and sums up this racist treatment he’s been facing from these white figures:

And now I looked around a corner of my mind and saw Jack and Norton and Emerson merge into one single white figure. They were very much the same, each attempting to force his picture of reality upon me and neither giving a hoot in hell for how things looked to me. I was simply a material, a natural resource to be used. I had switched from the arrogant absurdity of Norton and Emerson to that of Jack and the Brotherhood, and it all came out the same—except now I recognize my invisibility. (508)