The identity formation of minorities in this country has historically been a complicated undertaking. To Sir with Love and Invisible Man provide examples of the complex social stresses that minorities face in the world today. Although To Sir with Love takes place in England during the 1960s, its representation of the identity formation of people of minority status can easily be compared to the difficulties faced by minority students in the United States. Perhaps the complexity of minority identity formation can be rooted in the "twoness" faced by many minority groups (Dumenil, 255). Minority students, from their earliest years, are termed African-American, Mexican-American, Japanese-American, Jewish-American, and so on. They have dual identities.

Students cannot escape the "twoness" that they experience in American culture. Their inclusion in certain minority group often includes another dimension that is related to a particular student's identity formation, their multicultural surroundings. Social segregation is inherently part of American culture regardless of formal law. Using Los Angeles as an example, "racial topography" is very prevalent in city zoning. Greg Hise found in a 2004 study, that ethnic groups throughout the city tended to reside in common neighborhoods. He concluded that the formation of identity takes place at multiple scales through space, "from an individual body (with its psychological and sensory perception of internal and external and of bodily boundaries) to an urban district, to the nation state and its boundaries with other nations" (Hise, 556). In other words, identity formation takes place at multiple levels, within the self, within a school district, a community, a state, a nation state, as well as in relation to that nation compared to other nations. There are constant, often conflicting, influences in the formation of identity, especially for minority students. They are identified by where they live, where their ancestors are from, how much money their family has, the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, and whatever else can be used to label them.

Ana Y Ramos-Zayas studied Chicago's Puerto Rican community. She attempted to assess the impact of Puerto Rican nationalism on racial discrimination. Her study, as reviewed by Kerry Dohm, claimed that Puerto Rican nationalist activities were a daily experience in the local communities filled with Puerto Rican immigrants (Dohm, 113). This practice had to cause internal conflict for many young students living in these communities. Students would be forced to accept two separate identities. They would be proud Puerto Ricans at home and have to transform into proud Americans at school to minimize the racial discrimination they would experience.

W.E.B. Du Bois, as editor for the Crisis in the 1920s, wrote about the constant barrage or conflicting identity claims and conflict caused by nativism, Americanism, and racism experienced by Catholics, Jews, African-Americans, and Japanese immigrants. It was then that Du Bois coined the term "twoness." Du Bois wrote:

One ever feels his twoness--an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife--this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows the Negro blood has a message for this world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face (Du Bois quoted in Dumenil, 255-256).

Du Bois characterized the conflicting identities of African Americans. The twoness, according to Du Bois, is inescapable. There will forever be an internal conflict in the formation of an African American's identity.

The characters in To Sir with Love and Invisible Man are constantly wrestling with the "twoness" that Du Bois wrote about in the 1920s. Sidney Poitier's Mark Thackeray was able to make valuable personal connections with his students throughout the movie. However, he can never simply be a teacher. He is always a black teacher. He cannot escape the stigmas of 1960s race relations in England. This is evident when a student makes a racial joke (Clavell). Mr. Thackeray was at that point convinced that no matter how close he got with his students, he would always be their black teacher. He would always have to create his own identity with the "twoness" that Du Bois wrote about.

Similarly, the one black student in Mr. Thackeray's class experienced the same sort of complications in forming his identity. This is further complicated because of one parent being white. When his mother dies, Mr. Thackeray and the entire class was forced to acknowledge the complicated relationship between black and Caucasian students. When Pamela volunteers to take flowers to the family, Denham makes it perfectly clear that doing this would be considered socially unacceptable. This is indicative of the dueling identities that the black student must face everyday when he leaves home and goes to school with mainly white students. It also demonstrates the dual identity that Mr. Thackeray is forced to construct every day (Clavell).

Our hero in Invisible Man also has difficulty forming his identity. Throughout the novel, the reader does not learn the character's name. This accentuates his "invisible" identity. The reader is not provided a name to define the character. He remains nameless. The character goes through his life with no definite identity for him to embrace. Throughout the novel he tries again and again to define himself as an orator. However, he never fully can embrace that identity alone. He can never be just an orator. In his environment he always viewed by his audience as a black man first, then an orator who may have something of value to share. Just like Mr. Thackeray, he will always be battling his own "twoness." He is an African-American. He is not just American. He is not just an orator. He is an African-American orator.

Even Mr. Bledsoe in Invisible Man struggles in forming an identity of his own. Although he appears to be secure in his role as administrator of this university, he has an underlying motive. His outward identity signifies a man dedicated to improving the lives of his numerous African American students through education. However, Dr. Bledsoe exposes his contradictory identity in his office. Dr. Bledsoe said:

Negroes don't control this school or much of anything else--haven't you learned even that? No, sir, they don't control this school, nor white folk either. True they support it, but I control it. I's big and black and I say 'Yes, suh' as loudly as any burrhead when it's convenient, but I'm still the king down here. I don't care how much it appears otherwise. Power doesn’t have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and self-justifying. When you have it, you know it. Let the Negroes snicker and the crackers laugh! Those are the facts, son. The only ones I even pretend to please are big white folk, and even those I control more than they control me. This is a power set-up, son, and I'm at the controls (Ellison, 142).

This passage signifies the dual identities that Mr. Bledsoe has adopted. He is one person to his white supporters and another to his students, and still another to other African Americans. He can turn his identities off and on as the situation demands. The passage is also a turning point for the nameless hero. It helps awaken him to the reality of minority identity formation. To become successful as an African American, Dr. Bledsoe was claiming that African Americans had to have dual identities. He or she could not embrace a single persona.

Identity formation of minority students is rooted in historical complexities. Students face the challenge of adopting different and often contradictory identities to handle various situations. However, doing this probably causes these students problems in forming one true identity. They are constantly struggling with Du Bois' "twoness." In the 1920s, Du Bois thought it was impossible to be just an American, or just a student, or just a teacher from a minority group. You are always seen as part of that group, regardless of personal beliefs or feelings. Our hero in Invisible Man and Mr. Thackeray and his one black student in To Sir with Love all had difficulty creating and embracing a single identity. They represent the difficulties of identity formation experienced by millions of minority students throughout the world.

References

Clavell, James (Producer & Director). (1967). To Sir with Love [Motion Picture]. United Kingdom: Columbia Pictures.

1967.

Dohm, Kerry. "National Performances: The Politics of Class, Race, and Space in Puerto Rican Chicago." The Canadian

Review of Sociology and Anthropology, v. 41, no. 1, 113-114.

Dumenil, Lynn. (1995). The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s. New York: Hill and Wang.

Ellison, Ralph. (1980). Invisible Man. New York: Vintage International.

Hise, Greg. "Border City: Race and Social Distance in Los Angeles." American Quarterly, v. 56, no. 3, 545-558.