Asbestoswear by Ellison: Chastity Belt
Chastity Belt
[T]o embrace uncritically values which are extended to
us by others is to reject the validity, even the
sacredness, of our own experience. It is also to forget
that the small share of reality which each of our diverse
groups is able to snatch from the whirling chaos of
history belongs not to the group alone, but to all of us.
It is a property and a witness which can be ignored only
to the danger of the entire nation.
--Ralph Ellison