Backwacking, a Plea to the Senator

Backwacking, a Plea to the Senator is a text written in 1977 by Ralph Ellison. This narrative is about a citizen who wrote a letter to the Senator. In the letter, the white man is complaining about an abominable physical practice, according to him, among black people that he calls “backwacking”. During his piece, the writer, who qualifies himself as a God Fearing man, constantly relates this physical practice as a sin, and on how ungodly it is. 

This letter is more based on a criticism of black people because he always puts an exaggeration on the term “backwacking”. He keeps repeating himself more and more as we advance in the reading. Throughout the text, I was clearly able to see that the author uses a lot of comparaison. In fact, he puts in perspective the fact that black people take advantage of being in America by doing things they are not supposed to do in his opinion, and compares it with coming back to Paris after World War I. On the other hands, he tries to valid his point by putting God, and his faith in the problem. 

In my sincerely opinion, and as a Christian myself, I believe that this man is doing too much. Indeed, pretending to be a God fearing man doesn’t mean judging people. As a believer of Jesus, you can’t condemn people because no one is born sinless. I am sure that this man did sin somehow in his life. Even if the practice he condemned was a sin, he can just talk to the people concerned without making a big deal because this is how it is to live in a society. I believe that he is scared that the black culture will spread in America, especially in the late 70s, where racism started to slow down.  It seems to engaged with “and love them” because they both talked about black people, more specifically on their behavior.