W.E.B. Dubois captured the frustrating and looming concept
of one’s mere existence being seen as a problem. It is as if skin color itself
is an offense that, if not explained away, has the potential to offend a large portion
of our society. Are his sentiments still
alive in the souls of Black folk today?
“You’re not like other Black people.”
“I don’t even see you as Black.”
“You’re a credit to your race.”
These are things I’ve heard in my lifetime. These are the
modern-day versions of W.E.B. Dubois’ reference to the unasked question: “How
does it feel to be a problem?”
He pointed to the
irony of stealing an entire race’s access to wealth, education, success or
freedom, while simultaneously seeing that race as stupid, poor, and
incompetent. A man who can’t legally get an education and has no chance at a
career will inevitably struggle in poverty. He perfectly captured the destructive attitude
of society at that time in his words, “behold the suicide of a race”. Yet, amid
the desolation and intentional subjugation to failure, he also expresses
extreme optimism. He praises the idea of meshing the conflicting Negro and
American identities into one.
In Arthur Symons’ “Our Spiritual Strivings”, he expresses
his emotional struggle as water. Water, ever fluid & resilient, is one of the strongest forces on the planet. This made me think deeply about why W.E.B. Dubois chose
this poem to begin his writing with. What connects water, expression, struggle, emotion,
and the Black man? Incalculable power.
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