In chapter one of The Souls of Black Folk titled, "Of our Spiritual Strivings," written by W.E.B Du Bois, the issue is the veil. Du Bois says that every Negro is born with this veil. I will explain the issue of the veil by explaining the African Diaspora. The African Diaspora is the dispersal of African people from Africa to the rest of the world. Du Bois says that every Negro is born with a veil; however, being born with a veil does not mean that the veil is visible. The African Diaspora made the veil visible to the world. In addition, the veil plays a key role in the way Whites view African Americans today. The veil causes the Negro to be viewed as someone who is inferior through the eyes of White people. Part of the reason the Negro is viewed as inferior is because the veil places them in that position.
Negro boy near Cincinnati, Ohio (LOC)
W. E. B. Du Bois
The Souls of Black Folk title page. By W.E.B. DuBo...In "Of Our Spiritual Strivings," W.E.B. Du Bois discusses the strange experience of the Negro being a problem. Du Bois discussed a childhood experience explaining how his ethnicity differences from other children made him a problem. He realized that he was blocked from their world by a veil. In "Of Our Spiritual Strivings," Du Bois also discusses double consciousness, which is always looking at yourself through the eyes of people other than yourself. Du Bois writes, "It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, the 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" (Du Bois, 11), showing that Negroes look at themselves through the eyes of others. They do not look at themselves through their own eyes. In addition, Du Bois wishes to...