The Souls of Black Folk
Ratings21
Average rating4.1
It's a five star book for the main reason that Dubois' witness account of post-abolition America is priceless, however, if I had to study that book in college and be told to agree with him I would've been quite incensed. According to Dubois, the ex-slave must work to be respected by the white man, he should be educated and “civilized” is the word used, and the main idea being, having been a main part in the construction of “America”, the black folk are as equally deserving of the stolen land as the white men. Of course Dubois never refers to America as stolen land, he never even mentions the presence of the natives who like the kidnapped people of Africa have experienced unbelievable sorrow on the hands of the pilgrims and white colonizers, and that to me makes his whole analysis baseless.
I'm not gonna pretend to know what it's like being black in the USA. But after reading this book and “We Were 8 Years in Power: An American Tragedy” (2017) by Ta-Nehisi Coates in 2019, and a few others, I'm starting to pick up some patterns. There seems to be two camps in the black community:
• Those who see the poverty and brutality and suffering faced by people in their communities as being directly caused by their material conditions and those in power. This is exemplified by Coates, MLK, Ibram X. Kendi, and Du Bois. And...
• Those who see the poverty and brutality and suffering faced by people in their communities as being the fault of those suffering in the communities. This is best exemplified by Booker T. Washington, Bill Cosby, Barrack Obama, Ben Shapiro, every conservative ever, and most white Democrats.
As an aside, it's always a lot of fun reading really old books and seeing the author dedicate an entire chapter to just completely trashing their intellectual colleagues in the most eloquent ways possible. Couldn't tweet your shade back then, had to send it through a publishing house. Du Bois had an entire chapter dedicated to verbally destroying Booker T. Washington and it's the best chapter of the book, IMO.
So anyway, I fall into the former of those two categories and this book provides fascinating insight into the failure of Reconstruction. We've never reconciled with this failure and we're still reeling from it to this day.
I found this book fascinating and would recommend it to anyone interested in a snapshot of history not discussed enough.
This falls into the category: “The Lie of American Exceptionalism”
অ্যাফ্রো-আমেরিকান মানসের, সম্ভবত, সবচেয়ে গুরুত্বপূর্ণ বিশ্লেষণ পাওয়া যাবে এই বইতে। ডু বইজ (ঢং করে ফ্রেঞ্চ কায়দায় দ্যু বোয়া বলতে যাচ্ছিলাম, পরে দেখলাম ডু বইজ সঠিক) অন্য একটা সময়ে বেঁচে ছিলেন, এমন একটা সময় যখন নিজের সন্তানকে ডিপথেরিয়ায় মরতে দেখতে হয় কোনো শ্বেতাঙ্গ চিকিৎসক তার চিকিৎসায় রাজি হয়নি বলে। সেই আমেরিকা আর নেই। তবে নতুন আমেরিকার শেতাঙ্গ মানসে এবং কৃষ্ণাঙ্গ-শ্বেতাঙ্গ সম্পর্কের খুব বেশি উন্নতিও অবশ্য হয়নি। বলা যায়, বইজের অনেক উপসংহার এখনো প্রাসঙ্গিক।
প্রবন্ধগুলোয়(এবং একটি গল্পে) বিভিন্ন বিষয় এসেছে, সরো সং থেকে শুরু করে নিগ্রো শিক্ষা, নিগ্রো অর্থনীতি, নিগ্রো রাজনীতি(আমি অবমাননাকর অর্থে ‘নিগ্রো' ব্যবহার করছি না, বইজের মত করে বলছি), তাঁদের সমস্যা, তাদের বিশ্বাস, শক্তি ও দুর্বলতার বেশ নৈর্ব্যক্তিকভাবে তুলে ধরেছেন।
তবে আমার মর্ম স্পর্শ করেছে সিভিলাইজেশন এবং হিস্ট্রিকে করা বইজের চ্যালেঞ্জটা। প্রথাগত অ্যাংলোফিলিক(বা ইউরোফিলিক) যে সংজ্ঞা সভ্যতার, ইতিহাসের যে ন্যারেটিভ যাকে চ্যালেঞ্জ আজকাল চমস্কি বা হাওয়ার্ড জিন করেন ডু বইজ তা করেছেন, একইরকম কনভিকশন নিয়ে, কিন্তু আরো আগে।
...this has again and again been the result of carrying civilization and the blessed gospel to the isles of the sea and the heathen without the law. Nor does it altogether satisfy the conscience of the modern world to be told complacently that all this has been right and proper, the fated triumph of strength over weakness, of righteousness over evil, of superiors over inferiors. It would certainly be soothing if one could readily believe all this; and yet there are too many ugly facts for everything to be thus easily explained away. We feel and know that there are many delicate differences in race psychology, numberless changes that our crude social measurements are not yet able to follow minutely, which explain much of history and social development. At the same time, too, we know that these considerations have never adequately explained or excused the triumph of brute force and cunning over weakness and innocence.
So wofully unorganized is sociological knowledge that the meaning of progress, the meaning of “swift” and “slow” in human doing, and the limits of human perfectability, are veiled, unanswered sphinxes on the shores of science.
Short Review: Wide ranging series of 15 essays that range from personal to historical to philosophical. This is both clearly rooted in its time (1903) and still prescient. I think this is the first time I have read a whole book by DuBois. I have read some of his individual essays (the talented 10th at least). DuBois has a lyrical writing style that I really love. I want to read more of his writing, but probably after I read a good biography. If anyone has a suggestion I am open to it.
My slightly longer review on my blog is at http://bookwi.se/souls-of-black-folks/