IG

Overview of W.E.B. Du Bois - The Souls of Black Folk

  • Objective: Du Bois aims to explain the psychology of Black Americans after emancipation, discussing the historical and present realities of race and the perceptions by dominant white society.

Summary of Anti-Black Racism

  • Historical Context:
  • Slavery: From British colonies until the 13th Amendment (1865).
  • Fugitive Slave Act (1793): Legal pursuits of escaped slaves.
  • KKK: Originating in 1865, involved lynching and voter intimidation.
  • Jim Crow Laws: Enforced from the 1870s to 1960s.
  • De Facto Segregation: Exists in the North from the 1860s onwards.
  • New Deal: Excluded Black Americans (1933-1938).
  • Redlining and FHA loans: Discriminatory practices from the 1930s to 1960s.
  • The New Jim Crow: Emergence in the 1980s-?
  • Subprime Loans/Banks: Issues of racism in banking (2010s).

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration

  • Step 1: Discretion in the legal system disproportionately punishes Black people:

  • Statistics:

    • 15% of drug users vs. 35% of arrests.
    • 55% of convictions and 74% of sentences.
    • For juveniles: 16% of population, 28% of arrests, 35% tried as adults.
    • 98.4% of 2 or 3-strike lifers are Black.

  • Step 2: Legal barriers prevent racial bias challenges in courts (e.g., Lyons v LAPD).

Structural Injustice: Current Context

  • Compare the current system of mass incarceration to the Old Jim Crow.
  • Evaluate persistence and evolution of race-based discrimination.

Hopes for Freedom

  • Freed Black individuals believed their freedom would come through:
  • Emancipation from slavery.
  • Gaining the right to vote.
  • Receiving education.
  • Over time, they learned that a combination of these factors was necessary for real freedom.

The Color Line and The Veil

  • The Color Line:

  • Differentiation based on race: legally, socially, materially.

  • Pre-1960s: Explicit laws vs. Post-1960s: Prejudices and implicit biases.

  • The Veil:

  • The metaphorical division between Black and white Americans.

  • Racism obscures white understanding of Black equality and citizenship.

  • Black people tend to view themselves through a white lens.

Double Consciousness

  • Concept: The idea of having a split identity, viewing oneself through both personal experience and the dominant society's perceptions:

  • Epistemic Benefit: Understanding both Black and white experiences, navigating biases and societal views.

  • Code-Switching: Adjusting behavior and speech based on cultural contexts (e.g., “acting white”).

  • Two Cultures: African vs. American, showcasing dual perspectives and positionalities.

  • Effects: Negative stereotypes affect self-perception among Black individuals, creating feelings of inferiority and otherness.

Questions Surrounding Double Consciousness

  1. Is double consciousness a universal experience for all oppressed groups or unique to Black Americans?
  2. Is it a core identity feature or merely a stance?
  3. Are there exceptions among those who internalize the white perspective excessively or those who live separate from it?
  4. Can it be contextualized beyond a binary framework to include intersectional identities?
  5. Do all individuals internalize societal values and stereotypes, regardless of oppression?
  6. What is the ultimate goal regarding consciousness: fighting against white perceptions or altering conditions leading to double consciousness?