Both Franz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth and Ralph Ellison's The Invisible Man have themes suggesting that the most powerful limits in one's world are attributed to what race one belongs to. 

In The Wretched of the Earth Fanon states that “what divides the world is first and foremost what species, what race one belongs to," and Ralph Ellison finds that limits of social forces, especially racism, place limits upon his future. For the narrator, his attempts at defining himself through reaching goals or rising to the expectations of others are limited by the outside forces that cause him to play inauthentic roles. He concludes that he is really "invisible" to others as an individual as they perceive him only as they desire, making him part of violent actions much of the time. Similarly in Fanon's narrative, within the colonial system, the division of the population creates a tension that affects all action. And, the only action that is effective, Fanon concludes, is violence: "...colonization and decolonization is simply a question of relative strength."

Finally, after Ellison's narrator has been through various experiences and different movements in Harlem, and after Fanon's examination of colonialism, they both conclude what Fanon says, "...change does not mean reform...change does not mean improvement."