Journal Entry "The Souls of Black Folk"

Stephen Greene
English 48B
January , 2011
Journal #4 W. E. B. Du Bois

"A people thus handicapped ought not to be asked to race with the world, but rather allowed to give all its time and thought to its own social problems.  But alas! while sociologists gleefully count his bastards and his prostitutes, the very soul of the toiling, sweating black man is darkened by the shadow of a vast despair.  Men call the shadow prejudice...". (898, "The Souls of Black Folks)

"Although Du Bois had originally believed that social science could provide the knowledge to solve the race problem, he gradually came to the conclusion that in a climate of virulent racism, expressed in such evils as lynching, peonage, disfranchisement, Jim Crow segregation laws, and race riots, social change could be accomplished only through agitation and protest." (Biography.com, W. E. B. Du Bois) 

        W. E. B. Du Bois begins this quote with a sentiment that many of the newly freed African Americans of the time undoubtedly shared, including Booker T. Washington.  This was a common feeling of being unprepared for the immense and foreign challenges that they suddenly faced.  They felt that they needed time and effort in order to reach a social level competitive with the whites of that time.  Du Bois, however, points out the fundamental flaw in this idealistic view: that the African American's place in society was by no means static, and in most cases, dynamic in a way that was resulting in negative outcomes.  That is to say, that during this time that many wanted to use in order to improve socially, they were being judged and slipping farther from their long-terms goals of racial equality as they spoke.

        Du Bois criticizes an ideal that many held at the time, including Booker T. Washington, that African Americans would be able to slowly work their way up through society until on an even footing with whites.  They saw the accomplishment of this goal as possible by industrial means and by perseverance.  From their achieved competitiveness with whites, the black man would then be faced the task of proving themselves as equal to those of lighter skin.
        This required a great amount of time in which, argues Du Bois, the framework for a society legally separating blacks as unequal would be established and soon set in concrete.  He points out that these newly freed African American are immediately being judged by the rest of the Nation, and to argue for all responsibility of movement towards equality to rest solely on the black man's shoulders was lacking sanity and practicality.  The very notion that the black man must move up in order to compete on a level playing field with his white counterpart allows for social injustices which only succeed in worsening the condition.  Du Bois criticized Washington's essential request for the black man to be given time to pull himself up by his bootstraps as foolish, seeing instead that equality was only possible with the help of those in charge. 
   In addition to the task of raising one's self out of persecution appearing insurmountable without assistance, Du Bois argues that the African American community cannot afford the time that it would take.  As he points out, the critical, white sociologist of the time were quick to find fault in the black community.  They undoubtedly stressed the presence of "bastards and prostitutes", thieves and criminals, or negative members of the block society beyond reality and lessened the impression that they gave of the blacks advancements as a civilized people.  This degradation and harsh judgment of black society served to make the ideal of self-powered rise from racism seem increasingly impossible. It did this by darkening the shadow of prejudice that whites held over blacks and by enforcing a feeling of failure and daunting hopelessness in the mind of the common black man.
        With both time which could not be spared, and effort which could not be matched necessary for the idealistic plan for change that Washington set forth, it is no surprise that he was met with opposition.  Du Bois is merely pointing out that, while the relationship between prejudice and the current state of the African American was clear, the question to be raised was of which is the cause?  Du Bois states that, "relentless color-prejudice is more often a cause than a result of the Negro's degradation". (907)