W. E. B. Du Bois Racism Analysis Example
W. E. B. Du Bois Racism Analysis Example
Description
The main source is the book “Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory” Third Edition by Scott. The paper is about the following questions: #1. Does Du Bois’s account that “the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line – the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea” still exist today; in the twenty-first century? #2. What is the color line? #3, Do you possess a double consciousness, and if yes, how does it manifest itself in your life? #4 W. E. B. Du Bois Racism Analysis Example. How does it feel to be a problem? Think of this question concerning your race, creed, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, national origin, alien status, or language. #5. How might you use the veil concept to get others who are different from you to understand the real you?
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- E. B. Du Bois
Introduction
William Edward Burghardt (W. E. B.) Du Bois was a sociologist, Pan Africanist, author, socialist, historian, and civil rights activist of African American descent born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Du Bois, one of the earliest African American scholars concerned with issues surrounding imperialism, wasalso determined to eliminate the control of powerful regions or individuals over less powerful regions and peoples. Besides, Du Bois was the first American sociologist to identify the Trans-Atlantic slave trade as one of its own in the way that it had contributed to the US racial differences. W. E. B. Du Bois analyzed the psychology of racism and discussed the social and political perspectives of racism. Premised primarily on Scott Appelrouth and Laura Edles’ Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory, this essay reviews some of Du Bois’ concepts from today’s perspectives W. E. B. Du Bois Racism Analysis Example.
#1-The color line problem in the 21st century
One of W. E. B. Du Bois’s ambitions in his role as a civil rights activist were to see African Americans in the 20th century fight for and gain access to economic and political leverage, a concept that later became the foundation of the civil rights movement mid-20th century. A popular statement that has been scruitized both from sociological contexts is that in which Du Bois claimed that the 20th century would African American societies would challenged by the problem of the color line.(Appelrouth & Edles, 2015) With the statement, DuBois attempts to drive into African Americans the sense that for them to gain total freedom in the post slave trade era, they needed to close the economic and political gap that was still eminent between them and white Americans in the earlytwentieth century W. E. B. Du Bois Racism Analysis Example.
The above mentioned statement was prophetic of a 21st century phase of the problem of the color line. In that case, it is broadly evident in the United States and on the global stage today. Du Bois crafted his ideology of the color line as a worldwide system of exploitation by which the western economies and empires grew to propensity (Appelrouth & Edles, 2015). With the color line, the free are differentiated from the enslaved and owners sorted from the those who have been dispossessed (Jung, 2015). In other words, what Dubois describes in his book The Souls of Black Folk as the color line is a concept that reflects today’s notion of racial capitalism. The systemic structuring, expansion, and ideology of the western capitalist societies, primarily expressed through racial profiling, subjection, as well as differentiation, remain some of the outstanding manifestations of the 21st-century color line problem(Jung, 2015). Am common notion derived from W.E.B Dubois’s statement is that he attempts to interlink the concepts of race, nation, and imperialism. Together, the ideologies drive global conflicts, including anti-colonial struggles and racial integration in the western world W. E. B. Du Bois Racism Analysis Example. In fact, the statement is more of an expansive dream of freedom.
One of the ways in which Du Bois’ prophetic sentiments on the color line manifests in 21st century American society is through widespread racial profiling. The contemporary United States experiences folklore in which natural rights are cordially assigned to a section of the citizens and not to others, primarily premised on their race. The false and politically demobilized idealization of race across the western world has led to the mainstream view of color and national origins as natural and consisting only of numerous groups of people who utilize similar innate qualities. However, people across the U.S. are seemingly divided into racial lines in their day-to-day interaction with one another in the perspectives of their attitudes, stories, rules, as well as accepted knowledge. As Du Bois points out, the viewpoints that define the color line within societies emanate from existing power structures(Appelrouth & Edles, 2015). However, common people perpetrate such prejudicial thoughts and acts in their everyday social, economic, and political indulgences. In the wake of aggravated rates of racially motivated police brutality targeting people of color, antiracist struggles staged by groups such as the Black Lives Matter Movement should shift their efforts towards acquiring a new level of common sense pursues the complete replacement of capitalism W. E. B. Du Bois Racism Analysis Example.
Lastly, Du Bois’ much-prophesied problem of the color line has been aggravated, particularly in the U.S., by the ongoing situation of white rage and hate violence propagated against people of color and emanating mainly from power structures, cutting across far-right politics. Immediately following the inception of President Donald Trump’s administration was the establishment of policies aimed at spreading violence, chaos, and confusion among people of color. First came various anti-Muslim travel ban and the construction of the keystone XL and access pipelines in Dakota, and the suspension of refugee admission into the U.S. All the above mentioned policies targeted people of color locally and abroad. Another incidence of hate violence that came immediately following Trump’s presidency was the racially motivated shooting of Srinivas Kuchibhotla by Adam Purinton, a white navy veteran in Olathe, Kansas W. E. B. Du Bois Racism Analysis Example. Along with the recent murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin while under police custody in 2020, incidences of hate violence offer proof that war, capitalism, and white rage persist even in the 21st century, as Du Bois prophesized. The promise of radicalism staged by people of color against the color line problem in the U.S. should be premised on tearing down each aspect of the color line problem.
#2-What is the color line?
The concept of the color line, asAppelrouth&Edles (2015) text introduces in the text, Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory translates to theracial segregation registered in the USmdespite the abolition of the slave trade and policy readjustments in the post-civil rights movement. In one of his famous pieces of work, The Philadelphia Negro W.E.B Du Bois introduces the concept of the color line in an attempt to assess the quality and extent of interactions between African Americans white people living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania(Appelrouth & Edles, 2015). In the text, Du Bois argued that in all walks of life, the African American living in Philadelphia was liable to come across a considerable extent of objection or discomfort regarding their presence, often resulting in discourteous forms of treatment. Besides, Du Bois illustrated that the ties of relationships and memories among African Americans seldom remained substantial enough to mitigate racial challenges of the African Americans (Appelrouth& Edles,2015, p. 571). Du Bois illustrates several social contexts in which African Americans living in the State experienced dilemmas regardingwhether they would attend or utilize white-dominated facilities or spaces W. E. B. Du Bois Racism Analysis Example. In his account, those failing to get into such areas led to Negroes getting described as indifferent while being bold enough to use available white-dominated spaces exposed them to treatments that could hurt their feelings, leading to unpleasant altercations.
The ‘color line’ concept, as used in Du Bois work, was mostly grounded in the book The Souls of Black Folk (1903), which he had previously published both in the Atlantic Monthly and the New World. Both in the book’s introductory and second chapter, “Of the Dawn of Freedom,” Du Bois truncates his famous phrase concerning the challenge of the color line/. Throughout the text, Du Bois is grounded on using a brief amount of text while striving to make his concepts, particularly that of the color line as amply nuanced as he can (Appelrouth & Edles, 2015, p. 574). Thus, three incarnations of the thought emerge, one of which seeks to draw his readers to some of his direct references, and another identifies many aspects of life through which the color line manifested as a social and economic challenge of black Americans W. E. B. Du Bois Racism Analysis Example. While the modern literary usage of the color line has specifically implied that it is mainly a problem of the United States, this was not the perspective of W.E.B Du Bois (Appelrouth& Edles.2015, p. 576). The general contemporary use of the term the “color-line” has been narrowed down to address the plague of racial segregation in the United States.
#3-Double Consciousness
Also in The Souls of Black Folk is the concept of double consciousness which describes a sensation shared across African American populations in which their identities are divided into multiple facets. From a sociological perspective, his idea of double consciousness reveals not only the psycho-social segregation that existed in the post-slave trade America but also paves the way for a holistic understanding of the black experience both in the U.S. and world systems” (Appelrouth & Edles.2015, p. 562). Double consciousness first appeared in an 1897 Atlantic Monthly essay The Souls of Black Folk. Du Bois described double consciousness, from Negro viewpoints, asa “peculiar sensation” which drove them to view themselves through the eyes of whites. A result of this sensation, as Du Bois claims, is that black people eventually possess a view of themselves in “two-ness,” both as an American and as a Negro(Meer, 2019). From his analysis of the situation, Du Bois makes an indication that double consciousness is not solely a sensation, but an element of “striving” and political struggle endured by African Americans in the post-slavery America. With this concept, Du Bois strategically explores and expresses the experiences of people of color in the 20th century American societies W. E. B. Du Bois Racism Analysis Example.
Like Du Bois and other scholars of the 20th century, contemporary scholars have viewed double consciousness as a crucial concept that also plays a major role in the lives and experiences of African Americans. The behaviors and lifestyles of black males emerging from predominantly black communities, for instance, have been viewed from the perspective of double consciousness. Du Bois delivers the moniker “double-consciousness” to represent his awareness as an African American, a member of an oppressed race, and communicate his recognition of the entire social situations within which minority social groups such as women, non-Christians, members of the LGBTQ, and non-English speakers. As a woman of color in the United States, a common phenomenon that drives double consciousness in our lives, and with which we must deal, is isolation from critical groups not only based on color but also gender. Isolation of non-white girls from important groups such as art clubsis common in institutions such as colleges or public institutions. While white girls are viewed as leaders and drivers of progress, girls in colleges are considered radicalization, which informs isolation. This presents a double-double consciousness both in the lines of color and gender W. E. B. Du Bois Racism Analysis Example.
#4-How does it feel to be a problem?
Having problems constitutes an integral aspect of humanity as each of us experiences challenges of different nature and levels.However, to be problem insinuates that the presence of one’s race, color, sexual orientation, religion, creed, gender, or national origin within their societies, as malignant and bothersome. W. E. B. Du Bois raises the question about being the problem in his classic work. With the question, he attempt to reshape the thoughts of the black population about the race agenda in U.S. societies(Appelrouth & Edles, 2015,571). While Du Bois’s question was premised broadly on the deeply entrenched racism in his time, various minority groups today face policy challenges deeply rooted in policy limitations. Even so, Americans continue to come forwards through organizations with stories of pain and moral agencies to which they seek addressing.
The Trump administration, for instance, put in place policies that aimed at cutting down the entry of refugees into the U.S from the usually yearly 110,000 people to a historically low 30,000 W. E. B. Du Bois Racism Analysis Example. In a country that hosts the Statue of Liberty which is a symbol of freedom for all, blocking out thousands of migrants from North and Central America from accessing the country while escaping violence or escaping poverty feels awfully wrong. In addition, the U.S. has the crown jewel of the Bill of Rights, which guarantees all inhabitants of their freedom of speech, freedom to religion, and upholds freedom of the press. Executive orders effectively banning people from Muslim majority regions such as Iran from traveling to the United States does not sit right with the national ideals. It definitely does feel wrong to be viewed as a malignant presence in a country that claims to be a free world W. E. B. Du Bois Racism Analysis Example.
#5-Using the veil concept to get others who are different from you to understand the real you
With the veil concept, Du Bois strives to describe the American race jargon not by physical means but by psychological and spiritual differences. As conveyed in the book, the veil conceptsuggested that the United States was in two groups premised solely on their social intercourse, leading to even broader physical separation in the church, hotels, theatres, schools, street lines, etc.(Appelrouth & Edles, 2015, pp.554). Through the vail ideology, Du Bois successfully articulates the American attitude towards Negroes, as reflected through racial prejudice leading to two severely conflicting nations living in a single country (Appelrouth&Edles, 2015, pp 556). Du Bois’s ability to identify the race problem in the U.S. through his own experience informed the veil concept andenabled him to confront and transcend the complex life of a veiled black individual facing a tragic life due to the color of his skin W. E. B. Du Bois Racism Analysis Example.
An idea derivable from the veil concept is that each of us is uniquely created and different from all other people physically, or mayhap, in life, attitudes, belonging, or thoughts. However, each individual in the diverse setting is wholly shut out from their worlds by veils that they do not have to remove to remain similar to the rest(Fertik & Hanses, 2018). In a world where people are accustomed to defining themselves by race, religion, gender, socio-economic achievements, or sexual orientation, the veil concept suggests a solution grounded on enhancing self-interest by a stance of moderation. Having a life of freedom and independence, particularly on time and resources combined with the love for humanity in general without any form of prejudice, gives one a platform on which they can communicate their authentic selves to others without necessarily “tearing down” their veils. Besides, we can constantly reflect upon our various motives for action, which promotes superficial understanding of us by other people.
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Conclusion
- E. B. Du Bois is a classicalexample of a concrete test of the underlying principles and challenges inherent in the 21st century Negro world in today’s multicultural world. Through his ideologies of the double consciousness,color line, and the veil concept, Du Bois dissects the psychological and spiritual striving of the freedmen, the burden of racial segregation, as well as the measure of their strengths W. E. B. Du Bois Racism Analysis Example. However, nearly all these ideas and thoughts of the world as he viewed in the 20th century persist in today’s multicultural and more globalized world. In this time of political transition, people across cultures need to relate one life to another and treat people in bearable ways regardless of their gender, sexuality, the nation of origin, color, religion, among various other aspects of concern.
References
Appelrouth, S., & Edles, L. D. (2015). Classical and Contemporary Sociological Theory. London, United Kingdom: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Fertik, H., & Hanses, M. (2018). Above the Veil: Revisiting the Classicism of W. E. B. Du Bois. International Journal of the Classical Tradition, 26(1), 1-9. doi:10.1007/s12138-018-0475-9
Jung, M.-K. (2015). The Problem of the Color Lines: Studies of Racism and Resistance. Critical Sociology, 41(2), 193-199. doi:10.1177/0896920514567268
Meer, N. (2019). W. E. B. Du Bois, double consciousness and the ‘spirit’ of recognition. The Sociological Review, 67(1), 47-62. doi:10.1177/0038026118765370 W. E. B. Du Bois Racism Analysis Example.
