In W.E.B. Du Bois’ texts “The Forethought” and “Of Our Spiritual Strivings” both from the book The Souls of Black Folks, he reveals that black people are born with a “veil” (4) that represents a barrier between white and black people. Additionally, black people struggle to find their identity, making them have “double-consciousness” (5). The concepts of the veil and double-consciousness depict within the poems “The Beard” by Amit Majmudar, “liberation/poem” by Sonia Sanchez, and “Ka ’Ba” by Amiri Baraka. Racism can cause….
The color of their skin is the representation of the veil because society has created a barrier within blacks and whites. It is their destiny to be black and they cannot avoid the discrimination of the white society. Their …show more content…
Black people start to see themselves in different perspectives. The double-consciousness makes it difficult for a person to find their own identity because they do not know which perspective is true to them. Black people start to feel a sensation of “twoness, –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 asunder” (Du Bois 5). Du Bois believes that most black people two souls when they step into the world because black people want to fit in with society. But, most of the society is not accepting of black people because they view them based on their reputation as a whole black community. As the poem “The Beard” by Amit Majmudar says, “Well shucks, that bastard looks like me. / Judging from the sidelong glances… / The more they eyed me, / the more my face began to itch” (lines 28-36). As people kept looking at him his face started to itch and it made him want to remove his beard. The other people viewed him as the guilty black man because of the way he looked. Majmudar felt insecure about his appearance and he thought that it was necessary for him to shave his beard. His action to shave his beard was a result of social conformity because he wanted to fit in with the group at the gym. Many black people want to fit in within society because they feel insecure about who they are. Thus, it
The color of their skin is the representation of the veil because society has created a barrier within blacks and whites. It is their destiny to be black and they cannot avoid the discrimination of the white society. Their …show more content…
Black people start to see themselves in different perspectives. The double-consciousness makes it difficult for a person to find their own identity because they do not know which perspective is true to them. Black people start to feel a sensation of “twoness, –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 asunder” (Du Bois 5). Du Bois believes that most black people two souls when they step into the world because black people want to fit in with society. But, most of the society is not accepting of black people because they view them based on their reputation as a whole black community. As the poem “The Beard” by Amit Majmudar says, “Well shucks, that bastard looks like me. / Judging from the sidelong glances… / The more they eyed me, / the more my face began to itch” (lines 28-36). As people kept looking at him his face started to itch and it made him want to remove his beard. The other people viewed him as the guilty black man because of the way he looked. Majmudar felt insecure about his appearance and he thought that it was necessary for him to shave his beard. His action to shave his beard was a result of social conformity because he wanted to fit in with the group at the gym. Many black people want to fit in within society because they feel insecure about who they are. Thus, it