Race is an important social issue due to the fact that people use racial differences as a basis for discrimination. Even some of today's racism can be traced back to the colonial era of the 1400s. Once Europeans colonized Africa and America, white settlers followed the idea that they were a superior race and thought it was their moral obligation to civilize the “savages” who were the other races. It is by this notion that they justified their taking of the natives' lands and their enslavement. When it comes to the African American population, a few years in 19th century history were marked by institutionalized racism and legal discrimination against African Americans. Even though they gained the right to vote during this time, they were still not given the opportunity to do so due to racist groups such as the KKK threatening them for not sharing their views ; the South had Jim Crow laws against African Americans. Although racism may seem like something completely natural, even inevitable, we must realize that this is not the case. It has been proven that throughout history there have been many instances where people have learned to coexist peacefully. For example, during the Middle Ages, Europeans admired the ideals and traditions of China and Africa because at that time they were considered a much more advanced culture. In Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, he writes to show the difficulty of finding identity and individuality in a color-conscious society. In order to understand the brutality of a situation in which a person faces racism, they must have an experience themselves that involves racial discrimination. ...... middle of paper ...... or who made fun of him when he put him on shock therapy he said it reminded him of a dancing Sambo doll which is a racist doll depicting black people in a negative light. It's also the same doctor who wanted to castrate him, for no apparent reason, "The goal of his castration would have been to strip him of his power, of his ability to function, of his ability to progress, and of his ability to be whole (Michio, 4). » In conclusion, the narrator struggles throughout the novel to achieve individuality as well as identity. It seems that this literary work shows his journey to becoming more of a man visible to others rather than practically non-existent. The novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison was written to describe the difficulties of finding an identity and gaining a sense of individuality in a conscious society..