The Solution to Beauty and Happiness

“I passed on to a window decorated with switches of wiry false hair, ointments guaranteed to produce the miracle of whitening black skin. ‘You too can be truly beautiful,’ a sign proclaimed. ‘Win greater happiness with whiter complexion. Be outstanding in you social set.’ I hurried on, suppressing a savage urge to push my fist through the pane.”(Invisible Man, Page 199)
The narrator is walking around the streets of Harlem because he got bored of reading books and decided to take a stroll. As he was walking he was passing by through many signs and statues. He walks by a beauty shop and sees the sign that talks about whiter skin being the way to happiness and beauty. When reading this the narrator becomes and angry wants to punch the sign and break it. This is an example of white racism saying that white skin is better then colored skin. They are trying to make black people have a whiter complexion with their products. Usually the narrator is a pushover and he would just accept the sign. But after the accident when he lost his memory he felt more free and was mad at the sign. This showed that he wasn’t ashamed to be black. He sees the evils of white society towards black people. The narrator finally sees that he has given up so much on life because of white society. He used to do whatever society told him to do but now he actually has a mind of his own and able to see the racism going on in the world. If you had seen that sign and you were black would you be offended?