The Diction of Ellison: Integration vs. Desegregation
The collected essays of Ralph Ellison give us as readers insight into the mind of this historical American writer. Specifically in the essays assigned for Friday, we were able to get a better understanding of both his political and cultural beliefs while living in a struggling America. I was intrigued by Ellison’s use of the words integration and desegregation. Throughout his writing, it seemed that Ellison was vying for an America that was desegregated rather than integrated, purposefully using one word over the other in certain situations. In his essay That Same Pain, That Same Pleasure: An Interview, Ellison even seems to discredit the idea of integration stating that with such an act, “Negroes could not be nourished by the life white Southerners live. It is too hag-ridden, it is too obsessed, it is too concerned with attitudes which could change everything that Negroes have been conditioned to expect in life” (80). It’s interesting that what so many African Americans had fought and prayed for seems, in his opinion, to be frivolous and even harmful to black culture. He continues this idea, arguing, “No, I believe in diversity, and I think that the real death of the United States will come when everyone is just alike” (80).
It appears that Ellison views the term integration as solely an assimilation of blacks into white Southern culture rather than whites into black culture. It is clear that Ellison values the ideals of his people and fears the potential losses if such forced integration is established. Ellison believes in the equality of desegregation, but renounces the possible consequences of integration into a culture whose values are rooted in black enslavement.
Hi Catrina, you bring up a good point about this essay. I believe that Ellison even discredit the idea of integration because he thinks that it will corrupt Blacks. When he writes that“Negroes could not be nourished by the life white Southerners live. It is too hag-ridden, it is too obsessed, it is too concerned with attitudes which could change everything that Negroes have been conditioned to expect in life,” I think he is referring to how social decorum and expectations dominate White culture in the South. For Ellison, integration will not make up for the injustices that Whites have committed; it will only foster more awareness of how different Blacks are from Whites in a region where they were once sold as slaves. What will alleviate the Black man’s wretched condition, however, is desegregation – that is, making sure that Whites and Blacks have access to the same facilities and systems, so that Blacks and rise above White expectations and show how they are just as smart and capable as Whites.