Invisible Man

Why I Can't Stop Thinking About 'The End of History'

The Ezra Klein Show, 11 September 2026. The book comes up at 10 min 25 sec in.

Fukuyama cites Ralph Ellison's novel as an illustration of his recognition thesis: African Americans in the North faced not legal segregation but invisibility—white Northerners simply did not see Black people as fellow human beings—and that denial of recognition drove the deep resentment and distrust shaping racial politics in northern cities.

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