W E B Du Bois

The Souls of Black Folk W E B Du Bois

Du Bois begins with the claim that the central problem of the 20th century is that of the color line, and that all readers will thus be interested in the issues raised in Souls, no matter their race. He outlines the book, which features thirteen distinct chapters on issues ranging from Reconstruction to leadership to education to religion. The first chapter opens with Du Bois noting that white people seem to be curious about what it is like to be considered "a problem" by society. He recalls the moment at which he first became aware of racism as a child, when a little white girl in his elementary school class refused to accept a greeting card he gave to her. Du Bois characterizes the force of racial prejudice and alienation as a Veil that separates black people from whites and from the broader society in which they live. The Veil produces a distinctive kind of subjectivity that Du Bois calls double-consciousness, a term that refers to the way black people are forced to seem themselves both through their own eyes and through the hostile gaze of racism. This double consciousness leads black people to experience a tortured sense of internal conflict and confusion.