Ralph Ellison on Social Media

This quote, which I read in a high school English class, helped push me to the field of journalism long before social media. But this quote, borrowed for the social media era, keeps me excited about journalism.

The main character of Ralph Ellison’s novel “Invisible Man,” knows the power of the press to illuminate the lives of African Americans when he wonders: “All things, it is said, are duly recorded – all things of importance, that is. But not quite, for actually it is only the known, the seen, the heard and only those events that the recorder regards as important that are put down, those lies his keepers keep their power by…. Where were the historians today? And how would they put it down?”

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