Various authors attempt to discuss issues that affect the race, religion, culture, politics and other elements experienced in the survival of human beings. ‘The Souls of Black Folk’ by W. E. B Du Bois talks about the burden and prejudice that the people from the Black community experience. The book focuses on the celebrations and reflection of the Black experience in just fourteen essays. Du Bois considers the political, religious, racial, economic, and cultural implications in the Black society.
The Black community has continuously faced racial discrimination issues for a very long time. Du Bois expresses the tribulation the Black Americans faced in the South. The theme of the full writing by the author mainly focuses on the Black slaves, the freed and the Negroes. The author sometimes uses somber tones as he explains some of the horrific, senseless, impractical and illogical instances that the Black people had to go through under the oppression of the White Americans. However, the Blacks persevered the sexism, racism and classicism with the hope of emerging triumphant eventually. Today, the readers can easily understand how Du Bois explains and describes the pressing social and economic problems of the Black Americans.
The Black Americans were socially discriminated against according to their race. Du Bois mainly discusses the social aspect in the fourth chapter titled ‘of the meaning of progress.’ He celebrates some of the social issues such as the emergence of vocational schools which would help in impacting education. However, the schools were used for liberal arts, and only the able and talented children and students benefited from the vocational schools. The emergence of the Blacks vocational schools was in a way to prevent the White children and the Black children from socializing. The white children were the only ones who had the access to quality education which was also expensive such that the Black Americans could not afford.
The economic factors as discussed in the book indicate that the Black Americans were poor due to the neglect of the White Americans. The White Americans would not allow the Black people to be leaders, possess plantations or homes as well as attain wealth. Today, the situation still appears evident where the White Americans have been possessing higher economic and financial status as compared to the Black people. The black people moved to the American soils in search of greener pastures and job opportunities. Unfortunately, the white inhabitants took advantage of their desperate search for work and survival and treated them as slaves. Most of the first black people to arrive in America were slaves to the white people.
They worked on plantations owned by white Americans where they were mistreated and exposed to hard labor. They were either paid very minimal money or nothing at all. Some of the Blacks worked hard and became industrious, but they were undermined by the Whites. Du Bois mainly focuses on the Black Americans and White Americans of the South due to a large number of plantations. However, it came a time when the plantations were replaced by the tenant farms and political systems that were conducted through thievery. The replacement of the plantations completely neglected the Blacks. During the 20th century migrations, the blacks living in ‘dirty and dilapidated, smelling of eating and sleeping, poorly ventilated’ homes were evacuated (Du Bois 140). The slums were replaced with urban homes which led to the continued discrimination which the Northern white Americans also joined.
During the replacement of the plantations, the White people were allowed to possess pieces of land, but the Blacks were not allowed. The white people did not want the Blacks to have an opportunity to attain power and wealth. The population of the black people also increased, but their level of poverty was still lower than that of the white people. However, according to the 1996 research, 75% of the poor people in the American population were the White people. The single black mothers and their children possessed the highest risk of poverty. The economic status of the Black community only improved due to the increasing number of Black people in the American states. It led to support for equality and the emergence of equal Rights Acts that prevented the White people from oppressing the Blacks.
The social and economic actors as mentioned by Du Bois appears to have an impact in the present day. The discrimination cases appear to have declined over the years, but some American states still experience discrimination. The racism also included people outside the Black community such as the Latin Americans who have experienced racial discrimination. The South African apartheid was also an outcome of racial discrimination against the Black people. Today, the Black Americans constitute a large part of the American population. It has increased the social cohesion between the Blacks and the Whites as well as the economic status of the Black people.
Work Cited
Du Bois, W. E. B. Du. (William Edward Burghardt). Souls of Black Folk: The Original Classic
Edition. Emereo Pty Limited, 2012. Print.
