Malcolm X and Ellison

Interracial sexual desire is depicted both in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man and The Autobiography of Malcolm X Extreme social stratification and inequalities in social power play an important role in the depiction of interracial sexual desire in both Ellison's book and Malcolm X's autobiography, and also play an important role in the repulsion/attraction dynamic seen between the races. Both of these books leave little hope for humanitarian, loving relationships between the races, as they both often demonize white society. In The Autobiography of Malcolm X, white men who desire black women are clearly manipulative and often racists, while in Ellison's Invisible Man such men are often simply well-meaning but misguided. Malcolm X and Ellison both see white women who desire black men symbolize the white desire to "slum" and the attraction of the women to the stereotype of black men as powerful lovers, while the men...
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