Free Essay Example on Du Bois' The Souls of Black Folk

Many years since the abolition of slavery, the emancipation of former slaves and entrenchment of protective rights for the blacks, they remain disproportionately at risk of disease, poverty, poor housing, and low-quality education. Despite the fact that there is access to education for Africans, the opportunities available to the after struggling to complete their education are also minimal compared to the white population which makes it so demoralizing and doubt the true meaning of equality of everyone. The successive governments have deliberately tried to alleviate the challenges facing African Americans through initiatives such as equal labor and employment regulations, universal health coverage, and accessibility of education. Racism, discrimination, and segregation of the blacks in American undermined the tenets of democracy and freedom in the united states of America as well as weakened tolerance to diversity, which is the fabric that keeps a multiracial society intact.

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Du Bois book traces the genesis of the blacks struggle and the very many impediments that have dogged their life. Ideally, racism is partly the reason why blacks remain disproportionately at risk of getting into crime, dropping out of school, drug abuse, and death from treatable diseases. The statement, "from a common hardship in poverty, poor land, and low wages; and, above all, from the sight of the veil that hung between us and opportunity" from The Souls of Black Folk well encapsulates the historical challenges which have impacted the blacks to date (Du, 1995). This fact necessitates a radical and tailored approach to this previously discriminated population as a means of attaining real democracy, equality, and the American dream as espoused by the American founders. Booker T. Washington, who was a leader during racial America, urged the blacks to trade their identity and racial integrity for basic education and fundamental legal rights. Nonetheless, Du Bois urged blacks to get an education without compromising their racial identity. In fact, in the book, he hails the Freedmen's Bureau for establishing free school among Negroes in the South and availing free elementary education among all classes in the South. In his view, the blacks needed to be granted access to the same treatment as the whites without compelling them to cede identity or forgo anything dear to them. Based on Du Bois' compelling depiction of historical disenfranchisement of the blacks, including deprivation of economic prosperity, breaking the racial legacy requires drastic measures that remove all barriers to equality. As Du Bois points out throughout The Souls of Black Folk, racism not only served to undermine the black identity but also dented the ideal sense of democracy and the equality of the human race as espoused by the American founders.

W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, is a masterpiece that provides a conscious depiction of the systematic exclusion of the blacks in the United States of America, the challenges faced as a result of such disenfranchisement and feasible ways to gaining true emancipation. The author uncannily chastises the retrogressive anti-black governments that relegated them to the periphery. Citing the human equality race, Du Bois shows the inhumanity, state-sponsored segregation, and racism that was meted against the blacks resulting in different forms of vulnerability. The author shows that the Jim Crow laws were among the egregious evidence of racism. The book illustrates that even though the abolitionist movement succeeded in stopping slavery and subsequent laws enacted to allow blacks new rights such as universal suffrage, it did not have an equalizing effect since there had already been a highly entrenched perception that the blacks were biologically inferior to the whites. Du Bois characterizes the 1960s racism as diabolical and invention intended to advance white majoritarian interests and amassment of material wealth.

In The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois argues that racism undeniably deprived blacks of their consciousness and identity as a people. He melancholically writes, "...the exchange was merry, till one girl, a tall newcomer, refused my card,-refused it peremptorily, with a glance. Then it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil" (Du, 1995). This experience requires a relook and redefinition of race within the United States. It shows how the term was maliciously used to segregate the minority races, especially blacks. A proper national consensus and sensitization that race is only a show of heritage and not biological inability or inferiority are key to fully emancipating the blacks. Evidently, Du Bois abhorred the fact that being black would be a reason for discrimination. Strictly speaking, the race is a social construct that denotes an individual's bloodline but does not necessarily determine one's ability, character, or behavior. Therefore, segregation and discrimination based on race blatantly framed differences in skin color to isolate the blacks (Daniel, 2013). Two important concepts show the identity crisis with which the blacks in the then America had to contend. First is the double consciousness, which means being both an African and an American in a white racist society. The other one is the veil, which is a code word for racism. Like a veil, racism typically separated the blacks and whites, yet they lived in the same country.

The Souls of Black Folk points to the fact that racism besmirched democracy in its classical sense, thus setting America on a divisive course. Du Bois inadvertently contend that democracy means exercising an individual's freedom without undermining that of others. It stems from a sheer appreciation that everyone is essential and that diversity is an asset that society should use to thrive (Daniel, 2013). Without advocating for a radical revolutionist approach to reclaim a democratic space for the blacks, Du Bois notes that freedom for all would only come when the white racists and supremacists accept their past injustices and acknowledge that blacks too are equal. When the blacks are allowed to reclaim their identity, they regain consciousness to "become genuine participants in American culture, "to be a co-worker in the kingdom of culture" (Du 3).

The legacy of racism has been pervasive in the lives of blacks since it entrenched the sense of inequality. Du Bois, in his book, points to the fact that unless the welfare of the blacks is prioritized, their identity is recognized then freedom and democracy as it remained elusive. For instance, while in the past, racism took more aggressive forms, including segregation codes against blacks, today, most blacks are sentenced to correctional facilities for criminality, which emanates from past economic disenfranchisement (Rothstein, 2017). Appreciably, American society has become more egalitarian in the past, but aversive racism, which is characterized by avoidance and subtle discrimination against Blacks, still persists. This is the reality that Du Bois attempts to expose when he notes, "I have stepped within the Veil, raising it that you may view its deeper recesses faintly..." (Du, 1995). Due to the historical suppression and repression against the whites, they developed a conflicted identity, self-hate, self-doubt, and a lack of industriousness and self-reliance. On the other side, racism also affected the whites since it eroded their sense of humanity, became fearful, doubtful, distrustful, contemptuous, and hateful of Blacks (Rothstein, 2017). Therefore, the American dream which was premised on the ideology of giving each person a chance for self-actualization diminished among both blacks and whites. From a sociological perspective, the racial system left behind a broken society lacking deliberate interventions to improve the welfare of the blacks to par with the whites.

Granting the blacks freedoms and rights alone would not have been a sufficient approach to addressing their plight, especially economic inequalities. Conceivably, economic prosperity is a critical requirement for the enjoyment of most of the rights that the blacks attained. Still, most blacks remain embroiled in a vicious circle of poverty since they come predominantly from the lineage of former slaves, cheap laborers, and tenant farming. A close look at the distraught past of the blacks demonstrates the idea that any process which focused on alleviating their suffering had to start with economic empowerment (Daniel, 2013). Nonetheless, interventions such as the emancipation proclamation meant that the blacks had to start at a different level compared to the whites meaning that historical discrimination is attributable to the disproportionate percentage of poor Blacks. In advancing the interests of the blacks and brokering lasting freedoms, Du Bois calls for a forthright move to foster the economic empowerment of the blacks. This is the only avenue through which the ideals of the Thirteenth Amendment can be realized. In reference to the low financial status of the blacks which is a hindrance to the fulfillment of racial equality, Du Bois notes, "...this represents the lowest economic depths of the black American peasant, and in a study of the rise and condition of the Negro freeholder we must trace his economic progress from the modern serfdom..."(Du, 1995).

Improving the status of the blacks in America does not require a unilateral approach or just granting them equal status as the whites but the creation of a conscious synergy between them and the whites. As Du Bois notes, "the legacy of racism left the entire nation deficient of the basic human qualities on which it was supposedly founded " (Du, 1995). This implies that all Americans need to come together in healing the formerly suppressed blacks. While Blacks need to seriously pursue all the available means for progress, such as education, the creation of robust social support systems, and ensuring proper political representation, they need to demystify the misconception that they are biologically inferior. Selflessness and a realization of connected humanity is the ultimate solution to attaining a united and democratic America. No wonder Du Bois notes, "the ideal of human brotherhood, gained through the unifying ideal of Race" (Du 7).

In conclusion, a retrospection about the status of the blacks requires a reconciliation of the systematic barriers which have impeded their clamor for racial identity, economic prosperity, and equality. In light of this past, it is important that both the whites and blacks work together in realizing American reconstruction. Until the time when the African Americans actualize their hope for freedom, accessible education, and a reconciliation of their identity, it is difficult to claim that full emancipation happened. Through his, The Souls of Black Folk Du Bois encapsulates some of the harrowing racial experiences of the blacks in America, which has had a long term effect on their status.

References

Daniel, P. (2013). Dispossession: Discrimination against African American farmers in the age of civil rights. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press.

Du, B. W. E. B. (1995). The souls of Black folk. New York: Signet Classic.

Rothstein, R. (2017). The color of law: A forgotten history of how our government segregated America. Liveright Publishing.