“Of Our Spiritual Strivings” from W.E.B. DuBois’s narrative of immersion The Souls of Black Folk, A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid, and Citizen by Claudia Rankine are all pieces of literature expressing the societal struggles of the African-American and Afro-Caribbean communities due to their ethnic identity. In “Of Our Spiritual Strivings,” DuBois explores the idea of the “twoness” African-Americans struggle with as being a part of the society. In A Small Place, Kincaid reflects upon the theme of being a burden in a world built by you but does not allow you to be a part of it. In Citizen, Rankine discusses the idea of being both within and outside of a society which rejects you but admires your culture. The internal and external fracases explored …show more content…
Using this idea of being viewed as society’s problem, as the vehicle for this chapter, DuBois explores the idea of double-consciousness as a result of this unsettling revelation. DuBois makes the case that while being a part of this world, the Negro “ever feels his two-ness—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled …show more content…
Society uses our black bodies, or our black voices and music, or our creativity and ideas, but pushes the black person as a whole to the side. Rankine touches on this idea when discussing Serena Williams and the aftermath of hurricane Katerina. Even though Serena Williams is one of the number one athletes in the world and one of the best in her sport, it does not exclude her from being viewed as and treated as just another black body that is used and swallowed up by society when they need her and emitted out when they do not. Unfortunately this point was proven when Hurricane Katerina hit Louisiana in 2005. The slow response and the lack of urgency showed us the truth, which is “…the classic binary between the rich and the poor, between the haves and the have-nots, between the whites and the blacks, in the difficulty of all that (Rankine 83). With all that Rankine said in regards to Katrine she records a statement where a man said, “…I don’t know what the water wanted. It wanted to show you no one would come” (Rankine 85). Unfortunately this statement rings true time after time, and it is shattering and demoralizing that it takes a natural disaster, an act of uncontrollable force, for the truth to be exposed and for nothing to still be done. Can you imagine what message that sends? Yet people like Rankine’s friend tells [her she has] to
Omi & Winant, Bonilla-Silva, and Loveman all have different approach in understanding the distinction between ethnicity and race. Omi & Winant and Bonilla-silva all made a distinction between ethnicity and race, and study race through the lens of power relation, while Loveman argued that it is important to study these two side by side. DuBois articulate blackness as both race and ethnicity with the approach of “Double-Consciousness”.
Rankine also shares the horrible tragedy of hurricane Katrina experienced by the black community, where they struggled for their survival before and post the hurricane catastrophes. She reports that the lives of black people in the disaster were of no cost for white administration and they delayed the help. She expresses this by writing, “I don’t know what the water wanted. It wanted to show you no one would come” (Rankine 94)(11).
The idea of double consciousness, as defined by DuBois, can be seen in fleeting moments in both He Who Endures by Bill Harris and The Sky Is Gray by Ernest Gaines. When one compares the thought of double consciousness with the modern perception of a hyphenated existence, one can see that they both view the cultural identity ( African American) as one of a dual nature, but the terms differ in their value judgments of this cultural duality. Depending on how one values this cultural duality, as evidenced in both of the aforementioned works, it can alter the meaning of the works. However, double consciousness is the more appropriate perspective because it existed as a thought when these works were written, a positive view of hyphenated existence
When it all comes down to it, one of the greatest intellectual battles U.S. history was the legendary disagreement between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. This intellectual debate sparked the interest of the Northerners as well as the racist whites that occupied the south. This debate was simply about how the blacks, who just gained freedom from slavery, should exist in America with the white majority. Even though Washington and DuBois stood on opposite sides of the fence they both agreed on one thing, that it was a time for a change in the treatment of African Americans. I chose his topic to write about because I strongly agree with both of the men’s ideas but there is some things about their views that I don’t agree with. Their ideas and views are the things that will be addressed in this essay.
The idea of double consciousness was first conceptualized by W.E.B. Du Bois. In his writing “The Souls of Black Folk” Du Bois reflects on the subjective consequences of being black in America. On the concept, Du Bois says: “After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, 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, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness,--an America...
Dubois makes a strong case that people won’t say out loud exactly how they feel, He shows this by not having any of the white people express their opinions of black people to the black man, other than when it was provoked. Dubois uses the extreme solution to shock the reader and the white people by proposing his solution to the problem. The impact this solution has on the perception of the problem is shown at the end of the essay when the old lady walks back to her cabin crying, this implies that she has been affected by the colored man solution. Although written in 1912, Dubois’ argument that he presents in the essay still holds relevance in parts of the world
In his book “Between the World and Me”, Ta-Nehisi Coates explores what it means to be a black body living in the white world of the United States. Fashioned as a letter to his son, the book recounts Coates’ own experiences as a black man as well as his observations of the present and past treatment of the black body in the United States. Weaving together history, present, and personal, Coates ruminates about how to live in a black body in the United States. It is the wisdom that Coates finds within his own quest of self-discovery that Coates imparts to his son.
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Dubois is a influential work in African American literature and is an American classic. In this book Dubois proposes that "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line." His concepts of life behind the veil of race and the resulting "double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others," have become touchstones for thinking about race in America. In addition to these lasting concepts, Souls offers an evaluation of the progress of the races and the possibilities for future progress as the nation entered the twentieth century.
“How does it feel to be a problem?” (par. 1). Throughout “Of Our Spiritual Strivings” W.E.B. Du Bois explains the hardships experienced throughout his childhood and through the period of Africans living in America before the civil rights movement. Du Bois begins with his first experience of racism and goes all the way into the process of mentally freeing African Americans. Du Bois describes the struggle of being an African American in a world in which Whites are believed to dominate through the use of Listing, Imagery, and Rhetorical Questioning because these rhetorical devices stress the importance of the topic Du Bois is talking about.
As Johnson developed his ideas about literature, he adopted the use of "double consciousness" the theme presented by DuBois in Souls of Black Folk. This theme was used significantly in Johnson's Autobiography. Along with this theme he came to embrace the idea of "racial distinctiveness" theorized by DuBois. DuBois argues in his book that spiritual contributions are what African-Americans bring to white American culture.
“The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife, – this longing to attain self-consciousness, manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message f...
The American Narrative includes a number of incidents throughout American history, which have shaped the nation into what it is today. One of the significant issues that emerged was slavery, and the consequent emancipation of the slaves, which brought much confusion regarding the identification of these new citizens and whether they fit into the American Narrative as it stood. In The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B Dubois introduces the concept of double consciousness as “the sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others” (Dubois 3). This later became the standard for describing the African-American narrative because of the racial identification spectrum it formed. The question of double consciousness is whether African-Americans can identify themselves as American, or whether the African designation separates them from the rest of society. President Barack Obama and Booker T. Washington, who both emerged as prominent figures representing great social change and progress for the African-American race in America, further illustrate the struggle for an identity.
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.
W.E.B. Du Bois’ excerpt from, The Souls of Black Folk exposes the reader to the concept of double consciousness. Du Bois explains that African Americans view themselves from one perspective but living as a minority in America, where white people are the majority, they are also forced to view themselves from a white person’s perspective. Through this writing Du Bois illustrates the dual viewpoints to educate the reader about double consciousness regarding African Americans. Du Bois serves as the narrator in the excerpt and provides the reader insight with his perspective as to how he and other African Americans view themselves.
In his ground breaking book The Souls of Black Folk, DuBois writes: “It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this 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. One ever feels his two-ness, － an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn as under”. This concept that DuBois coins is the same struggle that Marshall and others like her were forced to face during her lifetime. It is reincarnated in her writing as she strives to show the different manners in which one can cope with this issue. Each of the aforementioned characters are all pivotal to this discovery since they all in turn show readers the various means and of course by making Selina the protagonist she illuminates the prescribed method of combating the issue of double consciousness that we as displaced individuals imminently