William E. B. Du Bois: The Souls of Black Folk Essay (Book Review)

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The book ‘The Souls of Black Folk concentrates on the ideas of race and equality, the position of a black man in society, and his unique identity neglected by the white majority. Du Bois underlines that the failure to see or acknowledge black presence and contributions to the church and the society is a by-product of the social sin of racism. Institutionalized racism so blinds the minds, eyes, and hearts of those infected with its pernicious sense of white supremacist ideology that few perceive the patterns of racial exclusion and segregation that infect the dynamics of institutions (Cronon, 1987). These racist dynamics are viewed as normal by most members of both the dominant and oppressed culture. The history of the dominant culture’s exclusion of African Americans from full participation within its social institutions and the history of the contributions of African Americans to church and society, despite their social exclusion, are often ignored, denied, or deliberately omitted (Backer, 1872).

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It is possible to say that Du Bois uses an angry style to appeal to the black community and white majority through vivid examples and language means. African American Catholics experience double invisibility, marginalization, and devaluation. In the Black world, we are marginalized because of our racial identity; and in the Catholic world, we are marginalized because of our racial and cultural identity as African Americans (Cose, 1993). The situation is further complicated when the economic and gender locations of some African American Catholics are taken into consideration. Poor, black, African Americans experience an intensification of marginalization and devaluation. The social marginalization of Black people in the United States is shared with all Blacks and other oppressed peoples within our nation. This marginalization is rooted in the historical development of the United States. Paradoxically, those seeking the recognition of their full human dignity through the acquisition of social and religious freedom have sometimes concomitantly denied the recognition of the full human dignity and acquisition of social and religious freedom of others. Africans and Native Americans were either enslaved, segregated, placed on reservations, or murdered. They were neither acknowledged as fully human nor as children of God. Social marginalization, with its concomitant invisibility and devaluation, is perpetuated when historians and others refer to the United States as a “nation of immigrants” (Connolly, 1983). This description ignores the existence of non-immigrant populations. Most Native Americans and Africans did not “immigrate” to this continent during the colonial period. The colonial and ecclesial expansion of Spain, France, and England, which began in the fifteenth century with explorers and colonial pioneers, continued with successive fluctuating waves of immigrants until the first half of the twentieth century. Former slaves in the United States seek political, religious, and economic freedom (Baron, 1969).

The text reflects the historical context and unique culture of the American nation speaking about internal problems and racial issues so important for the American society. American represents a multicultural unity that consists of different races and nations. In these circumstances, people are conditioned to their origins and presence of the ancestors of present-day Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Mexican Americans within nations history. The perspective of U.S. history, though partially true, glosses over the negative impact of colonization and immigration upon the lives of the Native peoples and Africans in the early foundation of the nation. The book reflects positions expressed by Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Martin Luther King. Similar to these writers, Du Bois speaks about racial problems and the importance of all men to be equal, despite their race and nationality. The genocide of Africans during the slave trade of the Middle Passage, and their brutal treatment as slaves, were, similarly, justified by denying their full humanity, by denying them any human rights, and the fear of their retaliatory violence (Banfield, 1999).

A more inclusive and accurate designation of the population of the United States would be that the United States is a nation comprising descendants of native peoples, European immigrants, enslaved Africans, and continuous waves of economic and political refugees and immigrants from Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, people are a culturally diverse nation. Succinctly, the United States is a microscopic cultural mosaic of the cultural diversity that characterizes the global world. That brings me to the third goal of Church history: understanding. The past enables one to understand the present. It helps one to distinguish the strands of the present. The characteristic of African-American culture is a passionate concern for justice (Davis, 1999). The virtue of justice means that as we live we fulfill our obligations to everyone and harm no one. That’s a daunting challenge, reminding us of the bonds we have with everyone and the responsibility we have to be attentive to their needs (Cronon, 1987). For the white majority, justice was not a consequence of morality but constitutive of morality. The weak, helpless, and downtrodden, the countless victims of racism, must be at the center of our ethical reflection, not on the fringe. Equality must begin with the concrete and particular, but specifically with concrete, particular cases of injustice. Racism cannot be bracketed while we consider other dimensions of moral life but must be its starting point.

Bibliography

  1. Backer, Houston A., Jr. 1872, Long Black Song: Essays in Black American Literature and Culture. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.
  2. Banfield, Edward. 1999, The Moral Basis of a Backward Society. New York: Free Press.
  3. Baron, Harold M. “1969, The Web of Urban Racism,” in Louis L. Knowles and Kenneth Prewitt , eds., Institutional Racism in America. New York: Prentice- Hall.
  4. Du Bois, W. 1994, The Souls of Black Folk, Dover Publications; Unabridged edition.
  5. Connolly, William E. 1983, The Terms of Political Discourse. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
  6. Cose, Ellis. 1993, The Rage of a Privileged Class. New York: HarperCollins.
  7. Cronon, E. 1987, David. Black Moses: The Story of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
  8. Davis, Allison. 1999, Leadership, Love and Aggression. New York: Harcourt Brace.
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IvyPanda. 2022. "William E. B. Du Bois: The Souls of Black Folk." June 10, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/william-e-b-du-bois-the-souls-of-black-folk-review/.

1. IvyPanda. "William E. B. Du Bois: The Souls of Black Folk." June 10, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/william-e-b-du-bois-the-souls-of-black-folk-review/.


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IvyPanda. "William E. B. Du Bois: The Souls of Black Folk." June 10, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/william-e-b-du-bois-the-souls-of-black-folk-review/.

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