The plight of the black started just before slavery. With the slave trade, the black Americans were exposed torture, oppressions and all kinds of dehumanising things. After the end of slavery, there were hopes that the status of the African Americans will improve and their plights will reduce. However, the plight of the African Americans is getting even worse than ever. The racial discrimination and segregation have become worse than it initially was (Berg 19). Various figures have come upon to fight for the rights of the African Americans but all have ended up failing or being assassinated. The likes of Martin Luther Kings who were lobbying for the equality and the rights of the Negro were later assassinated. This, therefore, has called for this research to establish the extent of tribulations and the oppressions the African Americans are going through. This research is connected to the coursework in that it establishes the historical, current and the anticipated future state of the African Americans as they struggle to gain their equality (Berg 19).
In his work “The Souls of Black Folk,” W. E. B. Du Bois endeavours to use the concept of “the veil” and the “double-consciousness” in order to explain the path the African Americans have followed to fight for their freedom and right up to 1903. Du Bois tries to explain the nature of the inner struggle among the African Americans as they attempt to fit in a society which is dominated by the Caucasian race. This work of Du Bois does not only apply to the African Americans but also to the minority and discriminated groups in America. This notion can also be well applied in the struggle of women for their equality in various societies. Dubois believes that, even though the slavery is over, the African Americans are still struggling in order to become equal citizens (Du Bois & Edwards 12). He believes that every moment problem is solved, another one just appears. The African American Problems are recurrent. When the problem of slavery was over, they started fighting to have equal rights to vote. When they were given the right to vote they started struggling for equal allocation of resources such as health services and well as education.
Du Bois uses the concept of “the veil” describes the invisible veil which has been created between the whites and the Black Americans. Many believe that the veil only exists on the side of the white people. They believe that the veil has blocked the whites from identifying the black Americans as fellow humans who deserve to be treated with equal dignity. However, according to Du Bois, the veil id two-fold; just the way the whites don’t consider the blacks as equal humans; the blacks have also started to feel the same towards the whites. A discriminative act by a single white has changed the blacks’ attitude towards them thereby making the veil be on both sides (Du Bois & Edwards 12). Du Bois also used the concept of “double-consciousness” to illustrate the African-Americans’ efforts to co-relate with the white. African Americans have learnt to operate in two; the black one and the white one. According to Du Bois, the African Americans are born with a veil on their faces but they have learnt to live in two.
In his Article "Plight deepens for Black men, studies warn," Erik Eckholm explains how the situation of the African Americans is worsening. He believes that the African Americans are facing dire situations than ever. The main issue in this article is that the level of unemployment and illiteracy has soared to highest levels among the blacks. The black men who are poorly educated are becoming more and more disconnected to the society (Eckholm 1). Studies show that very few African Americans go past high schools. Lucrative jobs such as legal works are almost entirely left for the whites. The black youths are left behind in education. And as a result, they end up becoming unemployed or getting meagre jobs.
Works Sited
Berg, Manfred. "Black civil rights and liberal anticommunism: the NAACP in the early Cold War." The Journal of American History 94.1 (2007): 75-96.
Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt, and Brent Hayes Edwards. The souls of black folk. Oxford University Press, 2007.
Eckholm, Erik. "Plight deepens for Black men, studies warn." New York Times 20 (2006).
