For this assignment, I chose to read: The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois. The book explores the setting of Reconstruction in America and the troubles that faced Black people at this time. Du Bois tells us his own, honest opinions about the features of Reconstruction and the prominent figures at that time like Booker T. Washington. While this book is a collection of essays as opposed to a novel, it still discusses key aspects of immigration like double consciousness and the veil concept explained below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Double Consciousness: Internal conflict experienced by Black Americans, as they experience a two-ness, which further forces them to see themselves through the eyes of a racist white society. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Veil: The racial boundary that separates Black Americans from white society. Which limits how the world sees them and how they see themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
How these concepts relate to immigration: While DuBois may have been talking about these concepts for Black Americans specifically, all non-white individuals have the capacity to feel these things too. Immigrants especially are experiencing a different environment and must feel for the first time different from everyone else. Which can cause them to experience double consciousness as they try to integrate into society all the while feeling judged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While reading this book, I felt an information overload so to speak. There were so many concepts and ideas introduced in even just the first chapter that struck me and I wanted to learn more. But the sheer quantity of the information was kind of stunting in a way. I kept reading, wanting to learn more, only to be hit with a new time period, or person, or organization that I had known little about prior. I had been familiar with some of the things discussed in The Souls of Black Folk, and it reminded me a lot of Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (phenomenal book). So I was glad that I recognized some parts of the content. It has also made me think about how our U.S. public education fails us. Why had I not heard the triumphs and the faults of the Freedman Bureau before? Why am I not familiar with the Black Belt in the South? I felt that learning this information in youth would have been critical to my understanding of enslavement and reconstruction. I felt kind of resentful and angry towards both myself and the public education system in this regard in addition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One experience that I was definitely having with these essays was awe. Which is defined as “the feeling of admiration or astonishment mixed with fear or respect, often inspired by something that seems powerful”. There was a lot of power within Du Bois’s book, concepts that he created in 1903. I deeply respect Du Bois for his contributions to these conversations and the fear aspect ties in with how the formerly enslaved were treated post Emancipation Proclamation. I think relearning and the ready to grow sentiment is also something that I felt deeply during my read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Right from the beginning of the book, Du Bois made several strong claims that still resonate in today’s climate that sparked my feeling of awe. Firstly,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nFreedom, too, the long-sought, we still seek, – the freedom of life and limb, the freedom to work and think, the freedom to love and aspire. Work, culture, liberty, – all these we need, not singly but together, not successively but together, each growing and aiding each, and all striving toward that vaster ideal that swims before the Negro people, the ideal of human brotherhood, gained through the unifying ideal of Race; the ideal of fostering and developing the traits and talents of the Negro, not in opposition to or contempt for other races, but rather in large conformity to the greater ideals of the American Republic, in order that some day on American soil two world-races may give each to each those characteristics both so sadly lack (Du Bois 9).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
This huge monster of a sentence was one that really stuck out to me, and one that I highlighted the full 10 lines of. This felt truly powerful to me and so well said. It left me in the state of awe which I described. It even maybe brought out a bit of curiosity to me, wondering if we have achieved this ideal over 100 years later. Of course, it is really not my place to say, and I understand the struggles that still face African-Americans in this day and age. But we have certainly made progress, even if the Trump Administration persists to reverse the things that have made us come so far as a nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The simple concept too that is introduced by Du Bois that the emancipation of the freed formerly enslaved people was an event that they so desperately desired and at the same time were not prepared for. This particular quote struck me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nHere at a stroke of the pen was erected a government of millions of men, – and not ordinary men either, but black men emasculated by a peculiarly complete system of slavery centuries old, and now, suddenly, violently, they come into a new birthright, at a time of war and passion, in the midst of the stricken and embittered population of their former masters (Du Bois 13).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
This contradiction does make sense to me, obviously those who were just freed did not really know how to handle their freedom. That combined with the government’s lack of effort to make sure they were integrated into society. Still it sent me into that state of awe, the acknowledgement that emancipation was not this purely joyous event was not something that was taught to me before. This also sparked that ready to grow attitude. I thought I knew a lot about the perspectives of Black people, I have read almost all of the works of Toni Morrison and I spend a great deal of time learning about different cultures. But still, I found this information striking and made me want to learn more and get out of more of my ignorance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When describing the Black Belt in Georgia Du Bois exclaims:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“How curious a land is this, – how full of untold story, of tragedy and laughter, and the rich legacy of human life; shadowed with a tragic past, and big with future promise!” (Du Bois 58). <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
The Black Belt was a term that I had never come across in my education and it was another thing that prompted the experience of relearning and ready to grow. How much more history and culture does even just this country have that I have yet to learn about or explore? I want to learn so much but how much space can my brain hold? On the concept of double-consciousness (which is something I am mildly familiar with – bringing it back to the setting of Invisible Man), Du Bois says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n“He began to have a dim feeling that, to attain his place in the world, he must be himself and not another” (Du Bois 7). <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
This is a concept that I feel really pertains to immigration as a whole. The feeling that you are two people in one, but the realization that you must be purely yourself is one that is powerful. Again left me in awe, and curious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Narrative Technologies at Work<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
One narrative technology that contributed to my experience is poetic history defined as “rearranging our collective memory to help us relearn where we came from”, perhaps this isn’t exactly “our collective memory” being a white person and all. But I could imagine that it would have the same effect for other races. The way Du Bois eloquently writes about the Black experience and struggle during the time period feels unique, you don’t see many authors laying it out this flatly. So perhaps this isn’t my memory or my relearning, but it is changing the ways I view this time period and the perspectives surrounding. Perhaps also shame-reducer would fit the way I felt about this book as well. Du Bois is presenting his interpretation of the time in a way that is non-judgmental for the reader, it is more or less simply acknowledging the events of the time and the way it impacted people. It does encourage me to love and feel empathy for the freedmen of this age. Those are the two technologies that best fit the nature of the book and the way I felt regarding the powerful words of Du Bois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Featured Image<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Cover for The Souls of Black Folk. Union Square & Co. All Rights Reserved. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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