Community Change

In order to change something for the better in a community, people are going to have to work hard, and many people are going to have to step outside of their comfort zone. This is extremely scary for many people in society, and they would rather not go through all the work and just live with their problem. With the issue of racism, I believe that a lot of people know that racism occurs but they don’t do anything about it because it would be difficult. It seems difficult because they don’t know where to begin. That’s the way I always use to feel and in some ways I still feel like that. I think we must realize that it is hard for people to step outside their comfort zone to accept change, and it is also difficult for people to give up on their traditional style of thinking they learned from their parents. I have learned that the best way to change a community is education about the issue. Again looking at racism, if everybody spent time with someone of a different race or spent time where they were the minority then maybe stereotypes could be broken and racism could end. Since I have spent significant time with people of a different race, I can see that racism is very evident and now, more than ever, I want to do something to change that. But, yet, I still don’t know exactly how to go about this. I guess this is evidence that change within a community is very difficult.
In the novel Invisible Man, Ellison makes it seem impossible for an “invisible man” to promote change. He makes it seem impossible because none of the narrator’s followers had the same idea of change that the narrator did. They did not see his idea of change, and therefore, they did not see him. It is very tough for anyone to promote change and the only way an “invisible man” can promote change is by making his change visible to everyone else. He must find people who desire the same change and organize and educate these people about the change so that progress can be made. The only way to succeed at change is with numbers, and the only way to get numbers is to have a common goal. If a man is invisible to everyone else, than his message is not going to get across and his idea of change will not be promoted.