double consciousness and the veil by web du bois summary and analysis
'Double Consciousness and the Veil' by W.E.B. Du Bois: Summary and Analysis
W.E.B. Du Bois' most famous work, his treatise 'The Souls of Black Folk', was a seminal work in the African-American literature. The two terms he incessantly used 'double consciousness' and the 'veil' couldn't have been put in a better set of words to explain his situation and what he felt about belonging to a looked-down-upon race. Our endeavor is to put forth a summary and analysis of W.E.B. Du Bois' 'Double Consciousness and the Veil'.
History repeats the injustice!
This is the 21st century we are living in, so to say! An unarmed 18-year-old African-American was gunned down by a police officer on August 9, 2014, in Ferguson city in Missouri, United States. The final verdict of this case was on November 24, 2014, with the guilty officer not being indicted. This horrible occurrence has caused many riots and protests in the city, and has left a mourning family crying for justice for their departed teenager.
'Double Consciousness' and the 'Veil' are terms used by William Edward Burghardt (W.E.B.) Du Bois in his classic work, 'The Souls of the Black Folk'. This book contains heart-touching essays on the black race, based on his African-American life experiences. It is known as an influential piece of work in the history of African-American literature. Apart from this, the book is acknowledged as one of the early works in sociology and holds an important place in social science.
Summary
In 'The Souls of the Black Folk', published in 1903, W.E.B. Du Bois writes about the struggle of the African-Americans that has been there since the time of slavery and continues to endure even after emancipation. He believes that one question most of his white men want to ask the black people is "How does it feel to be a problem?". This although is never asked directly, but is stated in their actions and made known by what they say.
W.E.B. Du Bois was made to realize that he was the problem, when he was studying in an elementary school in Massachusetts. As a part of their class project, they were supposed to exchange visiting cards. A girl who was newly admitted to the school refused to give him one, and that is when he understood the difference of his being. As a result of this incident, he decided to educate himself far more than any of his white mates and prove that his existence mattered.
Analysis
The struggle of an African-American boy, who was as innocent as any other white kid, to understand what was really going on around him, had his first encounter with the truth about 'racism' that a white kid of his age had revealed to him. W.E.B. Du Bois was in school when in a card exchanging class project, a new girl student of his class refused to give him one, because of the color of his skin. He realized there was a problem, and it dawned upon him at that very moment, that the problem was nothing else other than himself. He was the problem. His existence in a country of whites was a problem, and so was that of the realm of African-Americans living in America. Meandering around the actual point, the whites would insinuate into the minds of every black, how downtrodden they were.
A young W.E.B. Du Bois, with all the questions about his prejudiced permanence, was adamant on liberating himself and his people. He decided not to be oppressed by this imbecile discrimination based on the color of a man, and take further education, proving that it is justice in receiving equal rights as a citizen of America.
W.E.B. Du Bois writes about seeing the world from under the "veil", a misfortune every black is born with. The veil is a metaphor used for the restricted frame of mind that always thinks from within the walls of injustice. It is like an imaginary barrier that surrounds a black and separates him from the white―the barrier that is made by the whites for the blacks. Americans run circles around them making them feel guilty of faults that don't exist. They question their quiet existence. They make them live with the sense of dwelling under the power of someone else.
But as readers, we wonder if the hearts of this era have still not been able to accept the difference in color. Behind that skin is the same race―mankind. Is it so hard to understand?