Seeking Inclusion

"It is when we seek to express ourselves that the paradoxical cleavage in our lives shows most. Day after day we labor in the gigantic factories and mills of Western civilization, but we have never been allowed to become an organic part of this civilization; we have yet to share its ultimate hopes and expectations. Its incentives and perspectives, which form the core of meaning for so many millions, have yet to lift our personalities to levels of purpose. Instead, after working all day in one civilization, we go home to our Black Belts and live, within the orbit of the surviving remnants of the culture of the South, our naive, casual, verbal, fluid folk life." (Wright 127)

Here, Wright reflects on the seemingly inherent futility of the goal of cultural homogeneity between whites and blacks in America. Although legally granted citizenship, Wright sees a country that is culturally unwilling to assimilate and associate with black culture. Wright elucidates the fact that until people are ready to actively afford blacks the same treatment as whites, there will forever be a barrier that actively furthers the distance and hostility between the two groups. The underlying act of disassociation serves only to weaken the country as a whole and set back any kind of cultural homogeneity that could be achieved through more widespread acceptance of black citizens. By actively shunning black culture, there is an almost conscious damnation of any kind of social progress made by blacks and in doing so binds black citizens to the "remnants" of their own Southern culture wholly removed from the world around them.

QUESTION: Wright suggests that since blacks are consciously excluded from the American civilization, great dividends could be reaped from acceptance and inclusion into the more mainstream sphere of existence in the country. How does this help inform Wright's usage of terms like 'we,' 'us,' and 'you' earlier in the book?