Du Bois: Individualism, Freedom and Color Line (Term Paper Sample)

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Du Bois: Individualism, Freedom and Color Line
Freedom and Individualism
Du Bois’ tone in The Souls of the Black Folk concerning freedom and individualism, and especially how the interplay of these two factors with racial segregation shaped America’s history cannot be mistaken. The book and its organization is a relentless effort by Du Bois to illustrate the atrocities of slavery, racism and more importantly, espouse how freedom for slaves can cause a stir in the society. Moreover, Du Bois alludes to the creation of several Freedmen’s Bureaus with the blessings of the Congress to question the authenticity of the ex-slaves "freedom." To this end, he argues that the creation of the bureaus to safeguard the Freedman’s employment was an effort in futility and was indeed a failure for "the work it did not do, because it could not" (Du Bois 34). Du Bois also uses his narrations to illuminate the often-unseen side of freedom struggle. He writes of slaves whose desire and fight for freedom upsets an established order in the society and basically illustrates that freedom to one party might be the onset of somebody else’s woes. More aptly, he notes that there was a general consensus that freedom was overdue for the slaves only that these same individuals were the "source of strength for the confederacy, a military resource, laborers and producers" (Du Bois 17). Another clearest idea of the writer concerning freedom of labor and productivity is clear when he points out rather bluntly that if indeed the states were determined to foster productivity, it was crucial for the states to "make free working men out of slaves" (Du Bois 17).
Individualism is a strong theme that Du Bois uses as a firm base to leverage his ideas of what he makes of the northern and southern societies as well as offering an individual perception of racism in the traditional American society. Using narratives of individuals in the later chapters of the book, Du Bois seeks to espouse how individuals conceive racism and if indeed secluded from the masses, an individual still recognized intrinsic dignity. Moreover, in a rather subtle but apt way, in the eleventh, chapter, Of the Passing of the First-Born, Du Bois systematically narrates the life of his first son to what he terms as "untimely death" in an effort to elucidate the place of an individual in the context of social status. Additionally, Du Bois, using a fictitious character, John (of Atamalah) demonstrates how changes in an individual can create a "foreigner from within." Essentially, Du Bois illustrates that individualism is anchored on certain fundamentals in one’s native setting and a diversion from such a course can be detrimental. Nevertheless, The Souls of the Black Folk is complete with narratives in which the writer seeks to make clear his distinction between what we in common parlances conceive as individualism and liberalism. In the twelfth chapter of the book, Of Alexander Crummell, Du Bois uses the three "temptations" the character faced in what he calls the "story of the human heart" to make his point. In the text, Du Bois notes that Crummell filtered advice concerning his ethical dilemma on racism and hate, he knew he reserved an intrinsic dignity and decision to make (Du Bois 158). In this, Du Bois seeks to make a strong case for the essentials of individualism. He ostensibly makes the case that individualists often perceive external influences as meddling.
Interplay of Individualism and Freedom with Racism (Color Line)
From a general perspective, The Souls of the Black Folk is a history of racial segregation in the United States laced with cubicles of slavery and individualism that is as relevant to the American setting today as it was in 1903. In the book, Du Bois adopts different individualistic perspectives and invokes slavery, which is at the center of American history to illustrate the resilience of racial segregation in the United States. Using the narratives of the civil war between 1861 and 1872, Du Bois aptly notes, "Negro suffrage ended a civil war by beginning a race feud." Rephrased otherwise, the writer is preoccupied with addressing one key question of "what makes racism so resilient in America?" In this endeavor, he adopts individualistic and slavery themes to provide succinct responses. The book is marked with some other sub-themes that help to tell the "bigger story" but what cuts across the systematically selected themes is a preoccupation with tales of slavery and individualism told in regular and persistent intervals of color lines.
In order to establish the interplay of individualism and freedom with racism (color line) in the book, it is important to comprehend the concept of the color line in the context of The Souls of the Black Folk. Color line, as inferred to by Du Bois, refers to the significance of race and by extension racism, in the history of a community. The book is more preoccupied with developing a multifaceted approach to analyzing the correlation between racism and class both as separate and joint concepts and their use as models of socio-economic domination in the society. In this approach, Du Bois invokes the fundamentals of individualism, masses and other themes central to the societal setting such as slavery. Du Bois notes, "The problem of the twenty-first century is the problem of color line" (Bu Bois 16). He sets the stage for this statement and every theme and concept he develops can be conceptualized in line with this understanding. This is the understanding that from an individualistic and thematic perspective, the history of the American society can be conceived in the context of race, racial domination and racial exploitation.
The interplay of individualism and freedom with the color line is much clearer in the text in the "social forces" that Du Bois views as structuring the society. Through individualistic narrations, Du Bois espouses that racism is a strong form of social constructionism and that the racist mind and the resulting actions thereof comprise real magnitudes in the forces that structure the contempor...