In practically all its divergences, American Negro culture is not something independent of general American culture. It is a distorted development, or a pathological condition, of the general American culture.

Gunnar Myrdal, An America Dilemma, 1944

It does not occur to Myrdal that many of the Negro cultural manifestations which he considers merely reflective might also embody a rejection of what he considers “higher values.”…It is only partially true that Negroes turn away from white patterns because they are refused participation. There is nothing like distance to create objectivity, and exclusion gives rise to counter values…. It will take a deeper science than Myrdal’s—deep as that might be—to analyze what is happening among the masses of Negroes.

Ralph Ellison, “An American Dilemma: A Review,” 1944

The Freudians talk about the Id

And bury it below.

But Richard Wright took off the lid

And let us see the woe.

Dr. Fredric Wertham, “Underground,” 1942