"Thelonious (monk) ellison has never allowed race to define his identity. But as both a writer and an african American, he is offended and angered by the success of we's lives in da ghetto, the exploitative debut novel o..."Thelonious (monk) ellison has never allowed race to define his identity. But as both a writer and an african American, he is offended and angered by the success of we's lives in da ghetto, the exploitative debut novel of a young, middle-class black woman who once visited "Some relatives in harlem for a couple of days.