W.E.B. Du Bois' "The Souls of Black Folk"

W.E.B. Du Bois' "The Souls of Black Folk"

W.E.B. Du Bois' "The Souls of Black Folk" is a description of the problems of African Americans who are trying to find "freedom." Du Bois opens up his essay, by stating how people view him and his people. According to Du Bois the world outcasts blacks and looks down on them. Du Bois continued his argument from this statement by briefly discussing his story about how he personally discovered his own separation. Following his story he transfers his argument by stating that African Americans have two divergent "souls" in one person. The problem then of this double nature is that both souls are equally valuable, but the African still desires to merge the two into one for his own benefit. Du Bois also claims that the world outcasts black for their double nature. This in the end causes blacks to fall into a poor and un-informed social class. Transfering from his discussion of oppression, Du Bois concluded that Blacks truely understood not only the villainy of slavery but also what freedom actually meant. Following his points on freedom, Du Bois continues his essay by stating that black are still denied their promised freedom. This problem of a "false freedom" therefore leads the blacks to continue searching for a way to achieve truely complete freedom. Du Bois continued his idea of searching for a way to freedom, by stating that getting a "white education" would raise the living standards of blacks. After this however, Du Bois states the real problem of Blacks: Not that they are merely poor, but also that they also are uneducated and homeless and the majority of their race is the same. Du Bois therefore concludes from this problem that Blacks should not be forced into "racing" with th rest of the world, but instead given time and support to raise it up. However the main problem for Blacks is the prejudice of the world which looks down upon them and forces them into a worse situation. Du Bois finally concludes his essay by stating that blacks should work together for the advancement of the entire race, and also by discussing the patriotism of African Americans and their slave songs.

In his essay, Du Bois writes a different solution to a similar problem to tha which Karl Marx discussed in his Comunist Manifesto. For Marx the problem was that the middle class (Bourgeois) was oppressing the lower class beyond reason. According to Marx, the only solution to this class stuggle was for the lower class to rise up against and overthrow the middle class. Du Bois faces a similar problem where the blacks are oppressed into a harsly low lower class. However, Du Bois provides a different solution, where the goal is not to overthrow the oppressors, but instead to lift up the African American lower class to complete equality and freedom with the white majority in America.

W.E.B. Du Bois mentioned that African Americans faced a double nature as being both "Africans" and "Americans," and stated that this left blacks in an outcast situation, but would not all foreign immigrants face this same problem (not just Africans)?