What America Would Be Like Without Black By Ralph Ellison Analysis

Before reading What America Would Be Like Without Blacks, by Ralph Ellison, I asked myself how would the author explain the title and what point would he argue from. He starts with questioning the “concept of race” and speak on the fantasies of a “blackless America.” Ellison goes on to talk about the history of the time period where blacks were almost removed. My favorite example of this removal was the quote from President Abraham Lincoln in 1862, “Your race suffers greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffers from your presence. If this is admitted, it affords a reason why we should be separated.” (80) This reminds me when the Indian Removal Act where a group of individuals are being forced out of their respective territories
just because of their race. The author also speaks on slavery and the civil rights movement but toward the middle, he ties all in to speak on what America would be missing if it didn’t have blacks. Obvious things that would be missing include no slave economy, no civil war, and no Jim Crow system but he then touches on cultural and religious aspects that blacks cherish the most. (81) Imagine sports without black athletes or music only coming from white people. In support with Ellison’s argument, blacks helped shape America through complexity, creativeness, and even our stories that define American history. Ellison uses this essay to amplify the importance of black history by explaining how the world without. He states that we are seen as the minority and are so deeply disrespected because the whites who we came up with often question who they really are. He even says “Many whites could look at the social position of blacks and feel that color formed an easy and reliable gauge for determining to what extent one was or was not American. Perhaps that is why one of the first epithets that many European immigrants learned when they got off the boat was the term “nigger” – it made them feel instantly American.” (83) I agree with the author and believe that the importance of blacks in American history is often overlooked and depreciated when really, we are the foundation to the past and even the future. At the end of the text, Ellison hints that he wants blacks to know their importance and prove their worthiness. He finishes his by saying the nation could not survive with only their(whites) presence which clearly states his side to the “racial arguments”.