In these texts, the act of bricolage serves as a powerful metaphor for the process of cultural construction and resistance against oppression. Just as the uprooted Africans in Paul Taylor's excerpt from "Black is Beautiful: A Philosophy of Black Aesthetics" used what was available to them to cobble together the beginnings of African American culture, the characters in the other texts engage in acts of bricolage to navigate their identities and resist oppressive forces. In "The Souls of Black Folk" by W.E.B. Du Bois, the act of bricolage is evident in the way African Americans navigate their identity in a society that seeks to oppress and marginalize them. "It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at …show more content…
Through bricolage, Vuong resists societal norms and expectations, reclaiming agency and asserting humanity in the face of adversity. As the protagonist navigates their identity and experiences, they engage in a form of cultural resistance, piecing together fragments of their past to create a new narrative of selfhood. Vuong writes, "We come unbidden into this life, and if we are lucky, we find a purpose beyond starvation, misery, and early death which, lest we forget, is the common lot." The act of bricolage here serves as a form of resistance against societal norms and expectations, allowing the protagonist to reclaim his narrative and assert his humanity in the face of adversity. Each of these texts engages in acts of bricolage to construct and memorialize the existence in the face of situational "hows." They resist the homogenizing forces of oppression by piecing together fragments of culture, memory, and identity to create something new and resilient. This process reflects the themes of rebellion, resistance, and imagining otherwise, as characters navigate the complexities of their existence and assert their agency in the face of
Brown conducted a form of unorthodox anthropology fieldwork among southern ebony individuals within the 1920s and afterward engendered a series of dominant essays on ebony Folkways. Brown drew on his observations to engender a composed dialect literature that honored ebony individuals of the agricultural South rather than championing the early order of ebony life being engendered in cities and also the North. Brown's wanderings within the South portrayed not simply an exploration for literary material, however but an odyssey in search of roots more consequential than what appeared to be provided by college within the North and ebony materialistic culture in Washington. Both Brown’s poetry and criticism pursue the liberty referred to as Hughes. As a result of Browns in depth work in African American folk culture, he was well prepared to present his vision to a wider audience once the chance arose.
B., Du Bois W. E. The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1979. University of Virginia Library. 4 Oct. 2008. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. 37.
Du Bois' metaphor of double consciousness and his theory of the Veil are the most inclusive explanation of the ever-present plight of modern African Americans ever produced. In his nineteenth century work, The Souls of Black Folks, Du Bois describes double consciousness as a "peculiar sensation. . . the sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity" (Du Bois, 3). According to Du Bois assertions, the Black American exists in a consistent "twoness, - an American, a Negro"(3). Further, he theorizes, the African American lives shut behind a veil, viewing from within and without it. He is privy to white America's perspective of him, yet he cannot reveal his true self. He is, in fact, protected and harmed by The Veil.
Du Bois, W.E.B. "Of Our Spiritual Strivings." The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Gramercy, 1994. 1-15. Print.
The veil metaphor in Souls of Black Folk is symbolic of the invisibility of blacks in America. Du Bois says that Blacks in America are a
... collective consciousness of the Black community in the nineteen hundreds were seen throughout the veil a physical and psychological and division of race. The veil is not seen as a simple cloth to Du Bois but instead a prison which prevents the blacks from improving, or gain equality or education and makes them see themselves as the negative biases through the eyes of the whites which helps us see the sacred as evil. The veil is also seen as a blindfold and a trap on the many thousands which live with the veil hiding their true identity, segregated from the whites and confused themselves in biases of themselves. Du Bois’s Souls of Black Folks had helped to life off the veil and show the true paid and sorry which the people of the South had witnessed. Du Bois inclines the people not to live behind the veil but to live above it to better themselves as well as others.
Planned Parenthood is a non-profit organization that is government funded and offers free health care, sex education, and family planning to millions of women all over the country. (“Who We Are”) The organization was founded by Margaret Sanger in the 1960’s. Her mission was to provide free health care to women all across the nation despite their race, ethnic background, income, etc. She also vowed to educate and care for women’s sexual health while maintaining their privacy. As of late, Planned Parenthood has been a target of controversy, with a possibility of being defunded. Why or why not should the government continue to fund this organization?
In fact, it is clear to the reader that Huggins makes a concerted effort to bring light to both ethnicities’ perspectives. Huggins even argues that their culture is one and the same, “such a seamless web that it is impossible to calibrate the Negro within it or to ravel him from it” (Huggins, 309). Huggins argument is really brought to life through his use of historical evidence found in influential poetry from the time period. When analyzing why African Americans were having an identity crisis he looked to a common place that African American looked to. Africa was a common identifier among the black community for obvious reasons and was where Authors and Artists looked for inspiration. African American artists adopted the simple black silhouette and angular art found in original African pieces. Authors looked to Africa in their poetry. In The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes, the names of rivers in Africa such as the Euphrates, the Congo and the Nile were all used and then the scene switches to the Mississippi river found in America showing that blacks have “seen”, or experienced both. Huggins looks deeply into Countee Cullen’s Heritage discussing “what is Africa to me?” a common identifier that united black artistry in the Harlem Renaissance, “Africa? A book one thumbs listlessly, till slumber comes” (Countee). The black community craved to be a separate society from white Americans so they were forced to go back to the past to find their heritage, before America and white oppression. Huggins finds an amazing variety of evidence within literature of this time period, exposing the raw feelings and emotion behind this intellectual movement. The connections he makes within these pieces of poetry are accurate and strong, supporting his initial thesis
" The Souls of Black Folk", is a collection of autobiographical and historical essays contains many vast themes. There is the theme of souls and their attainment of consciousness, the theme of double consciousness and the duality and bifurcation of black life and culture. One of Dubious the most outstanding themes is the idea of "the veil." The veil provides a connection between the fourteen seemingly independent essays that make up "The Souls of Black Folk". Mentioned at least once in most of the essays, it means that, "the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second sight in this American world, -a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others”. The veil seems to be a metaphor for the separation and invisibility of black life and existence in America. It is also a major reoccurring theme in many books written about black life in America.
The Souls of Black Folk broadens the minds of the readers, and gives the reader a deeper understanding into the lives of people of African heritage. W.E.B. Du Bois articulates the true meaning of the problem of the color-line through his vast knowledge of American history and descriptive personal scenarios. Du Bois attempts to explain why the "problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line" (Dubois 13). In his essay, Du Bois uses both a rational and an emotional appeal by underlining the facts of racial discrimination through Jim Crow Laws and lynching, and his personal references of childhood memories to demonstrate his perspective of the problems of African Americans. Du Bois effectively reaches his audience by earnestly convincing the people of the North and the South that African Americans are human beings of flesh and blood. They have their own cultures, beliefs, and most importantly souls. He demonstrates that African Americans are like other humans and under the justice system they must have equal rights and liberty that America guarantees to all men in its Constitution. Du Bois uses a metaphor of a veil, which translates into a barrier that separates the identity of blacks and whites. Through his essay, one can understand that Du Bois believes that only by tremendous effort would...
Being a resident of South Carolina, African-American Culture was chosen as part of the applied learning project for the Intercultural Nursing class, because African-Americans make up more than a quarter of this state’s population. According to the 2010 United States Census Bureau, the total population for South Carolina (S.C.) is 4,625,364, with 27.9% being of African-American descent. The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding and sensitivity to issues and cultural variances or phenomena that are unique to the African-American Culture. Another goal is to identify nursing interventions that are important for the nurse to consider in caring for this population. These phenomena’s include variances in social organization, communication, space, perception of time, environmental control, and biological variations associated with the African-American culture. (Giger, 2013 and South Carolina minority, n.d.)
Du Bois, W.E.B. "Chapter 1: Of Our Spiritual Strivings." The Souls of Black Folk. New York: New American Library, 1969. 1-3. Print.
Du Bois, W. E. Burghardt. The Souls of Black Folk. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co.1903. Print.
In Du Bois' "Forethought" to his essay collection, The Souls of Black Folk, he entreats the reader to receive his book in an attempt to understand the world of African Americans—in effect the "souls of black folk." Implicit in this appeal is the assumption that the author is capable of representing an entire "people." This presumption comes out of Du Bois' own dual nature as a black man who has lived in the South for a time, yet who is Harvard-educated and cultured in Europe. Du Bois illustrates the duality or "two-ness," which is the function of his central metaphor, the "veil" that hangs between white America and black; as an African American, he is by definition a participant in two worlds. The form of the text makes evident the author's duality: Du Bois shuttles between voices and media to express this quality of being divided, both for himself as an individual, and for his "people" as a whole. In relaying the story of African-American people, he relies on his own experience and voice and in so doing creates the narrative. Hence the work is as much the story of his soul as it is about the souls of all black folk. Du Bois epitomizes the inseparability of the personal and the political; through the text of The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois straddles two worlds and narrates his own experience.
Neal, Larry. “The Black Arts Movement.” The Black Aesthetic. Ed. Addison Gayle, Jr.New York: Doubleday &Company, Inc., 1971. 272 - 290.