Of Our Spiritual Strivings W. E. B. Dubois Analysis
In Of Our Spiritual Strivings, the two main messages that WEB DuBois has to share are of the dangers of double-consciousness and the idea that a Veil exists between White America and African America. He first realized this when he was at school and they were passing around visiting cards and one girl refused to give him a card, simply because of his skin color. He realized at that moment that there was a vast veil between white and black America. However I found it interesting that he had no desire to attempt to remove that veil. Instead his desire was for African Americans to stay close to their roots, but at the same time without assimilating into white culture. He also expresses this when he says “After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world,—a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world.” The African American is separate from White America, but yet is still American. DuBois desired that African Americans should not try to compromise with white america, but be proud of their heritage and yet still be recognized as Americans and not second-class citizens.
This quote also leads into his second idea which is the idea that there should be a self-consciousness from African Americans. “It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.” This continues on his idea that African-Americans should strive to be themselves and not something else, and not measure themselves by those that do not value them. In this next quote DuBois states that manhood is attained threw one state of mind, or self-consciousness, which is the viewing of oneself through their own lens and not thru the lens of others.
This quote also leads into his second idea which is the idea that there should be a self-consciousness from African Americans. “It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.” This continues on his idea that African-Americans should strive to be themselves and not something else, and not measure themselves by those that do not value them. In this next quote DuBois states that manhood is attained threw one state of mind, or self-consciousness, which is the viewing of oneself through their own lens and not thru the lens of others.