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4.28 AVERAGE
4.28 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
reflective
tense
medium-paced
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Aah, so good.
I'm here today to tell you that The Souls of Black Folk is the perfect place to start if you're looking to know more about the civil rights movement in the USA. I guess not only that, but also to learn more about race relations and how different races experience the world.
The book consists of several essays and a short story, each dealing with a specific topic, e.g., education, the church, music, Booker T. Washington, etc. The standout ones for me was definitely chapter 2 telling the story of Washington and his conservative beliefs, as well as the chapter titled 'Of the Coming of John' (chapter 13). This chapter is a fictional story about two boys, both named John, and how they are dealt different cards in life because one is black while the other is white. The story might be short, but it is truly one very impactful story.
While this book is specific to the US, I think it can be applied to countries all over the world where different races live together. Here I firstly think of countries that suffered from colonization, firstly Namibia and South Africa, as these are places I know.
I'm here today to tell you that The Souls of Black Folk is the perfect place to start if you're looking to know more about the civil rights movement in the USA. I guess not only that, but also to learn more about race relations and how different races experience the world.
The book consists of several essays and a short story, each dealing with a specific topic, e.g., education, the church, music, Booker T. Washington, etc. The standout ones for me was definitely chapter 2 telling the story of Washington and his conservative beliefs, as well as the chapter titled 'Of the Coming of John' (chapter 13). This chapter is a fictional story about two boys, both named John, and how they are dealt different cards in life because one is black while the other is white. The story might be short, but it is truly one very impactful story.
While this book is specific to the US, I think it can be applied to countries all over the world where different races live together. Here I firstly think of countries that suffered from colonization, firstly Namibia and South Africa, as these are places I know.
Extremely interesting, insightful, and still relevant.
Some of it was stuff I've "learned" before but it went over my head or didn't absorb. Du Bois tells it in simplified & in some cases personal breakdowns. Definitely will reread.
Some of it was stuff I've "learned" before but it went over my head or didn't absorb. Du Bois tells it in simplified & in some cases personal breakdowns. Definitely will reread.
Admittedly, I read this over the course of three months because I just don't have the attention span for Serious Essays. But I was determined to finish it because this is an important book. Du Bois has many insights about race relations that are still very relevant today, over 100 years after its publication. The fact that he was also fighting against a popular opinion set forth by Booker T. Washington--that segregation is great solution to solve the race problem, that white men can decide what's best for black people--makes this book all the more significant.
Had to push myself to get through it, not a light read.
Obviously there's a lot of historical context into which we have to insert this book to give it meaning, and no amount of reading will ever give me the true sense of what it was like to be Black during Du Bois' era. I have to look at this from a modern perspective.
I know that Du Bois' view of Black people's potential was revolutionarily (?) progressive for his day, but looking with 2021 eyes I feel like he thinks uncomfortably low of others of his race. The whole "talented tenth" thing is kind of uncomfortable to read about now, because it throws the untalented 90% under the bus. And there's a lot of other generalization, too. Huge groups of people are condemned for laziness, promiscuity, and anger, and Du Bois rationalizes this as a product of training under slavery. And like, honestly, I would empathize with anyone who did feel this way, after the way slaves and even post-slavery Freedmen were treated! Like damn! But again, there's pretty sweeping condemnation, and it makes me wonder how much this low opinion of so many Black people might have contributed to modern prejudices today. One of the most progressive voices for Black people at the turn of the century thought 90% of Black people were lazy, angry, and promiscuous? Those stereotypes are still doing harm more than a century later.
I know Du Bois and the NAACP he founded had (and have) a huge positive impact on the lives of many Black people, and I know there was not a lot of progressive anti-racist scholarship at the time (by the design of White oppressors), but I'm kind of scratching my head at how Du Bois is one of the most positively perceived thinkers from this time.
Obviously there's a lot of historical context into which we have to insert this book to give it meaning, and no amount of reading will ever give me the true sense of what it was like to be Black during Du Bois' era. I have to look at this from a modern perspective.
I know that Du Bois' view of Black people's potential was revolutionarily (?) progressive for his day, but looking with 2021 eyes I feel like he thinks uncomfortably low of others of his race. The whole "talented tenth" thing is kind of uncomfortable to read about now, because it throws the untalented 90% under the bus. And there's a lot of other generalization, too. Huge groups of people are condemned for laziness, promiscuity, and anger, and Du Bois rationalizes this as a product of training under slavery. And like, honestly, I would empathize with anyone who did feel this way, after the way slaves and even post-slavery Freedmen were treated! Like damn! But again, there's pretty sweeping condemnation, and it makes me wonder how much this low opinion of so many Black people might have contributed to modern prejudices today. One of the most progressive voices for Black people at the turn of the century thought 90% of Black people were lazy, angry, and promiscuous? Those stereotypes are still doing harm more than a century later.
I know Du Bois and the NAACP he founded had (and have) a huge positive impact on the lives of many Black people, and I know there was not a lot of progressive anti-racist scholarship at the time (by the design of White oppressors), but I'm kind of scratching my head at how Du Bois is one of the most positively perceived thinkers from this time.
Why isn’t this a classic every high schooler reads? Over a hundred years later and is still very relevant.
Reading this in the twenty-first century was both uplifting and frustrating.
Uplifting because a lot of the things Dubois dreamed about happening and advocated for is visible today. There is an increasing amount of black people in higher education and black specialists in all subject areas. Voter suppression is still an issue in America but there has evidently been a great deal of progress since the publication of this book.
Frustrating because its clear that there's still so much more to be done. Dubois highlights how broken the criminal justice system is in a number of the essays. He presents the link between prisons and capital, demonstrating how prison labour was the South's solution to the economic vacuum left by slavery. It was apparent that this strategy was disproportionality affecting the the African American community and leading to numerous people being wrongly imprisoned. However, little has been done to combat this issue, the prison industrial complex is too profitable to be challenged, even when lives are at stake.
Anyway, I would really recommend this book.
Uplifting because a lot of the things Dubois dreamed about happening and advocated for is visible today. There is an increasing amount of black people in higher education and black specialists in all subject areas. Voter suppression is still an issue in America but there has evidently been a great deal of progress since the publication of this book.
Frustrating because its clear that there's still so much more to be done. Dubois highlights how broken the criminal justice system is in a number of the essays. He presents the link between prisons and capital, demonstrating how prison labour was the South's solution to the economic vacuum left by slavery. It was apparent that this strategy was disproportionality affecting the the African American community and leading to numerous people being wrongly imprisoned. However, little has been done to combat this issue, the prison industrial complex is too profitable to be challenged, even when lives are at stake.
Anyway, I would really recommend this book.
challenging
informative
reflective