The Souls Of Black Folk By W. E. B. Dubois Essay

In “The Souls of Black Folk” by W.E.B. DuBois, he writes about his own realization of racism and its importance amongst African Americans. He starts by asking himself, through conversations with others, “how does it feel to be a problem?”. He continues by describing his first realization of his race, and how it changed his outlook on life, by associating himself with being different than the other children. He describes how his outlook on life drastically changed throughout his childhood years, based on his race, he felt like “a stranger” in his “own house”. Along with feeling lost, he has a battle of identity within himself, between being American and a Negro, describing it as “two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings”(p. 25). His wish is to have these two titles merge as one, not to assimilate to either individually, because by doing so cast out the other, but to become “both a Negro and an American” (p. 25).
DuBois explains how slaves were so anxious for emancipation, very so that “few men ever worshipped freedom with half such questioning faith as did the American Negro” (p. 26). Though, after forty years after emancipation, only disappointment was left …show more content…
African Americans must not fight between being American and being Negro, but to accept themselves as who they are, and begin to recognize the importance of race organizations. Organizations such as; Negro colleges, Negro newspapers, Negro business organizations, a Negro school of literature and Art and so on, which may be called a Negro Academy (p. 32). All of which would be used to better the life of all Negro men, women, and children in the United States. Though it is contingent on the will of African Americans, as they “MUST DO FOR THEMSELVES”, and not expect things to be done for them (.p.