The biggest takeaway I took from Ellison’s piece was the sort of tragic life his grandfather lived. It does bring up an ambiguous grey area in terms of how minorities should fight racism. On one hand, you could fight it vehemently, but only be seen as an animal to society and specifically racists or live a peaceful life and be passive to racism so you do not become what they see you as. MLK was passive, Malcom X was in your face, so both sides have their believers and followers. Racism has made Ellison’s grandfather live in fear his whole life. Always on guard on how society will view him and look down upon something that was not the status quo. He was timid and meek and in a way, allowed racism to keep growing. He became what white men wanted him to be; passive and no voice. And now as he is on his deathbed he realizes he was a traitor and that sort of tragic ending for him raises questions on how to handle racism with no real, concrete answer.