Friday, February 13, 2015
Du Bois Kind Of Mindset
The conservation of races was an interesting read but reading about it was almost surreal because it's actually some I grew and was raised on and that's why I am here today, because of hard work and working twice as hard to plan the unfair game to come in a "predestined" second place. Du Bois had some very well stated arguments of why race should be conserved and preserves. In pushing for conservation, it should be natural that he was PRO-BLACK. This was seen in him starting the NAACP. He brings up that in conservation, we must pull ourselves up from the whole we were placed in with a smile/grin on my face and say, "No sweat". I guess that's the piss poor excuse of reparations... But I'll digress... I would agree with Du Bois when he is talking about how blacks must embrace being African and present our heritage to the world before we assimilate and become African American. I feel as if he was heading somewhere with the stance of history has had many power players and it just hasn't been the African Americans time yet to shine. He is pushing for findings self identity first and foremost and then embracing and working together to create the true ideal American deal and equal rights and a balanced equilibrium. IT IS AN UNCOMFORTABLE FEELING really having to question identity and status everyday when you pass the threshold of your neighbor hood..... Your own home.... In parallel to Du Bois I can support his claim by adding another layer from personal experience, via sexuality. The same form of suppression and oppression is held against you when you have to live in a predetermined world of who you are suppose to love and not love. Questioning are you American? Gay? Or am I going to be Black today? In my own ideal world I would love for us to be just one America, beautiful in all of its variety but to have and build that America, the people MUST know what the African American race has to offer.... And it's through the talented tenth that will pave the way! Little do a lot of people know, the black race has already trailblazed many paths before the European race.... Lol for example.. The bible isn't the final word... It was retold... Lol pulp fiction in so many words. Do your research! Du Bois did raise some good points and arguments however I do feel as if we should address things on a more systematic scale versus individualist. It is too messy and time consuming!
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I understand what you're saying completely. I think that there are some parts of Du Bois' writings that really uplift how people of color should be recognized for their excellence (like whites are), but then there's that part where it's almost symbolic violence towards black people when he talks about how blacks should just stop complaining. It's just sort of confusing, to be honest.
ReplyDeleteI love a lot of what you wrote but something that stood out to me was "Little do a lot of people know, the black race has already trailblazed many paths before the European race." I have always made this point because few recognize it. One of my favorite lyrics by Immortal Technique is "I hate it when they tell us how far we came to be, as if our people's history started with slavery." Blacks were all powerful in many lands and this goes unnoticed. It's always "Look at the progress, look at how far we've come," as if blacks were born into oppression. I like a lot of your points, but this one especially!
ReplyDeleteI concur with your desire to have a single, united country where we are celebrated as a single, diverse body of peoples as opposed to a hunk of land consisting of differing sects of "American"... As someone brought up in class (I think with a Raven Simone quote?), how about, instead of labeling each other as Asian-American, African-American, Latin-American, or Caucasian-American, we just settle with "American". Unless someone has directly migrated here from a different country, I see no need to secularize ourselves this way -- and even in the case of migration, the "need" to differentiate between immigrant and native is heavily conditional.
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