Introduction
The book Soul of Black Folk is all about the world in which African Americans lived during the slavery period and after slavery was abolished. The author best uses his own experience to come up with this narrative and hence making it more interesting. The book focuses on the society of black and white people. This book brings out values of humanity, self-esteem, and importance that the Africa Americans had. The heritage of African Americans is described to be very rich. This book also goes ahead to discuss some of the reasons that brought about the differences between the blacks and the whites. Language is one of the reasons that put the whites in a superior position because the African Americans were forced to abandon their native language and learn the American language. This resulted in the creation of hatred and the whites were seen to be enemies. The African Americans were not able to develop socially and economically and this made them bitter. Lack of superiority robbed the African Americans of their potential.
Discussion
The book deeply captured the experiences of African Americans at the end of the nineteenth century. Dubois said that African American students who had graduated were mostly teachers, heads to institutions such as schools among others. This was how they were to fit in the society because being in the church alone was not going to give them a better life in terms of occupation and other things. I loved the way he discussed the issue pertaining to work because he said that even after they continued getting the education they had a huge problem of getting employed and also receiving the right pay. He said that these problems were inevitable because that was all part of civilization for the blacks.
The African Americans had debts that were not from borrowing commercially but because the pay they received was too little to take care of their expenses. On his discussion about the family size of the African Americans, he said that there was a decrease in family size because of the economic status which had fallen over time. The poor state of the economy had forced them to marry and get married late. While this went on, some social evils such as prostitution came to emerge. He said that this problem was very rooted in society. For example, he said that the social struggle that the African Americans went through was because of the economy which was then followed by the social classes which arose in the harmonized population.
However, I did not agree with him when he said that African Americans were ignorant and poor. Only a few of them were well to do and I would say that they were deprived because they lacked an opportunity to better their lives while others just got lucky. The fact that the majority of them were still uneducated was because they could not afford to pay school fees. This was where the issue of child labor arose which caused the children not to physically develop and illiteracy continued to proceed (Dubois, 102).
The problem of the twentieth century has proven to be the problem of the color line because the issue of race is still a social problem in our society. The African Americans showed to have a consciousness that was doubled because, in everything that they did, they had to measure themselves using the white persons. The issue of racism blocked the African Americas out of great opportunities and hence not being able to explore their potential. This problem of racism emerged during the slavery period. This problem was undeniable and very real, even though some Americans referred to racism as self-created. The majority of the blacks could read or write and this was because they did not have the chance to go to school since they were denied education when they rebelled to be released when they were still slaves.
Conclusion
African Americans went through a lot to prove themselves to the white people and this is still continuing till today. These differences are still existent and they were basically brought by color. They did well for themselves by being able to embrace education and most of all understanding the circumstances that they found themselves in. Education helped them get the freedom to work and think because it made them be at the same level as the Americans. The move by the African Americans to create their own churches appeared as a sign of weakness because they used it to fuel tribalism. However, the church showed how spiritual they were and this eventually helped them take care of their suffering and also give them hope about life. This also helped to take care of the bitterness that they harbored against the whites. Having put so much effort into the African Americans, in the long run they still remained at the bottom as far as the economy was concerned.
Works Cited
Dubois, W.E.B. The souls of black folk: essays and sketches. New York: Forgotten Books, 1961.Pgs 76-182.