The Souls of Black Folk

The idea of double consciousness that W.E.B. Du Bois talks about in The Souls of Black Folk captured my attention from the beginning of the text, and the concept forced me to look at how I view people who may be different than me in a different light.  I find it very true that often humans judge their own personal value and identity through the eyes of others, and it was shocking to me to finally realize how troubled this approach is.  Not only can looking at one’s self in this light give someone a false sense of worthlessness, but it can also cause entire races and groups of people, such as African Americans, to question their identity.  This idea caused me to take a more in depth look at what it meant to be an African American.  The questions surrounding the identity of these people as either American AND black or American BUT black forced me to go back and look at my knowledge of racial segregation and tension during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.  Society as a whole obviously restricted black opportunities and labeled these people as Negroes.  This automatically took away any claim they had of being true Americans in title and truly demonstrated that being black had much more weight than being American in this society of Du Bois’ time.  Although as I continued to read I also recognized the more internal debate within blacks that Du Bois spoke to where blacks feel as though they are Americans because they believe in American ideals and values.  Some African Americans during this time chose t feel this way and by doing so refused to conform to how whites in society perceived them.  This discourse among the African American community itself is ultimately what brought a voice to these people in speaking out against oppression and injustice in all facets of life.  Du Bois’ thoughts fell within the latter spectrum and caused him to refute the identity that his people were given in society in favor of equal rights for all.  This battle between external and internal influences within the black community is what caused the uprising of civil rights activism and these early incidents helped to pave the road for later activists such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, just to name a few.  I was pleased with Du Bois’ candidness in his writing and his willingness to openly criticize other influential blacks, such as Booker T. Washington, for their inabilities or unwillingness to fight for the suffrage and education of African Americans.  As he detailed these desires for universal education, I was impressed by his poignant writing style in discussing how keeping blacks in poverty hurts not just the individual but the country at large and has the potential to lead to rebellion.  This unbeknownst foreshadowing demonstrated to me that it is not education that gives people dangerous ideas, but rather the lack thereof that can cause individuals left in ignorance to act out against society.  These points helped me to understand American society from a different society during this pivotal time in our nation’s history, but it also helped to show me that many issues involving education, universal suffrage, and political activism still exist in a large capacity today.