Ras

The character Ras has always stood out to me from the rest of the characters in the novel due to the fact that he is very independent, bold, and not easily pressured into conforming towards the group standard.Yet I also find it very sad when we hit the scene between Ras and Clifton fighting. Ironically, this is due to the fact that Ras is unable to kill Clifton and actually spares his life because he is unable to kill someone with the same ethnicity as himself. He makes it quite clear by saying "I ought to kill you. Godahm, I ought to kill you, and the world be better off. But you black mann. Why you be black, mann? i swear i ought to kill you." This illustrated the division between Ras and the narrator as well as Clifton. It's depressing how Ras says that he wouldn't kill Clifton or the narrator because of their blood ties, and even reminds both men to think back to their roots as we he says "We sons of Mama Africa, you done forgot? You black, BLACK! You--Godahm, mann!...You got bahd hair! You got thick lips. They say you stink. They hate you, mann. You African. AFRICAN! Why you with them. Leave that shit, mann. They sell you out. That shit is old-fashioned. They enslave us--you fogey that? How can they mean a black mann any good? How they going to be your brother?" Yet despite Ras's attempt, he is unable to convince either Clifton or the narrator to join his sides. Instead, the narrator "had reached him now and brought the pipe down hard, seeing the knife fly and I raised the pipe again, suddenly hot with fear and hate." This selection reminds me when the narrator fights with Lucius Brockway in order and ends up knocking his teeth out. Both these accounts are equally significant, however, due to the fact that when juxtaposed to the narrator and the Brotherhood, Bledsoe or Norton. He would never hit any of these men or feel such burning hate as he does with Ras because they are white men. Ras then goes on to remind the narrator where his allegiance actually ought to lie as he says "where you think you from, going with the white folks? i know, godahm; don't i know it! You from down South! You from Trinidad! You from Barbados! Jamaica, South Africa,and the white man's food in your ass all the way down to the hip. What you trying to deny by betraying the black people? Why you fight against us? Why you go over to the enslaver? What kind of education is that? What kind of black mann is that who betray his own mama?" I also enjoy the connotation of the word "mama" and the numerous allusions that it could be significant for such as mama as in Mary from the Bible, or Mary, who the narrator abandoned and lied to in Invisible Man. "Mama" could also be referencing "Mother Africa" mentioned earlier but it also be meant simply as mother itself.