Journal free writing - Essay Example

“Of Our Spiritual Strivings” By W.E.B Du Bois In this essay the W.E.B Du Bois, reflects his thoughts on racism in America at the beginning of the twentieth century as he believes that race is going to be a major problem for the century to come. In his book “The Souls of Black Folk” he shares his personal experience of being an African American, forty years after the Civil War. In the chapter ‘Of Our Spiritual Strivings’, he shares his story of how everything used to be normal when he was young and how racism started with the passage of time.

The author recalls the memories of his childhood when he was not noticed as a Negro but as a regular boy. He had friends and he was equal to them until a tall girl refused to accept an exchange card from him. Right after that his friends started to notice that he was different. They isolated him due to him being dark. He was left with no one to compete with, in exams and games. People started looking at him with pity as he was an outcast and was judged by his color instead of seeing the beauty of his heart.

Du Bois decided not to give up as an outcast and planned on reading law, healing the sick and spreading knowledge. He realized he had the burden of a dark, half named race on his shoulders. Very soon he had learned that to make his place in this world he had to be himself and not someone else. The problem was that he was not only a poor man but a poor race living in a rich country with skilled competitors’. Further on the author states that he does not want to be an American nor a Negro completely.

He wants to learn from America and has Negro blood flowing in his body. He does not want to depart from any. Being an African American, he has one thing common with his ancestors except for his color and hair and that is the number of difficulties faced by them since the fifteenth century and most importantly slavery. Back in the days of slavery, people only desired to be free and to be treated as humans. For the black men, freedom also could not give them the right to be treated equally as the white.

The white men take the Negros as half-men and thus according to them they do not deserve to be anything but servants and of course belonging to the lower class, there is no need for them to vote or get education. It is not that the Negros have not contributed anything to America. They have given them good music and fairy tales and have laid in front of them an example of determination and strength to tolerate hardships. The African Americans are still striving for a second freedom. The freedom to breathe, love and live their lives the way they want to.

The struggles of black men shine in the darkness, leaving hope for the centuries to come. Du Boi is the most influential African American figure during the early part of the Twentieth century. In the end he wishes to make it possible for a person to be an American as well as a Negro without being humiliated and eyed with pity and looked down as a problem.