Luke Orlando

Reference:
Du Bois, W.E.B., The Souls of Black Folk, Millenium Publications, 2014.

"They that walked in darkness sang songs in the olden days -- Sorrow Songs -- for they were weary at heart. And so before each thought that I have written in this book I have set a phrase, a haunting echo of these weird old songs in which the soul of the black slave spoke to men." 
 

So begins Du Bois in the penultimate essay of the collection, The Souls of Black Folk. From the first page to the last, Du Bois painstakingly details the struggles of the black American. Set against the backdrop of reconstruction era policies, the majority of Du Bois' observations are of systemic racism enshrined in brutal economic conditions, internalized demoralization, and the impotence of large government regulation. He turns an eye first to "The Problem", of which he declares himself a part. He asks if the reader understands what it means to be a problem or to be talked about like one. With his credentials established, he then lambasts the policies and "propaganda" of his contemporary, Mr. Booker T. Washington. It is from this even-toned criticism that he lays the groundwork for his later claims. While he argues that the efforts of Mr. Washington are laudable, and perhaps even somewhat beneficial, they are not an end in themselves nor an effective means to one. Du Bois argues that the acquisition of wealth through supplicant labor is not an acceptable goal of people of color. Rather, it is the development of public schools through the strengthening of universities that will breed equality. It is this claim that strikes me as the most pressing and relevant to our time. In today's climate, we regularly tailor college classes to meet the demand of the gig-economy and force public school teachers to "teach to the test". We seem to have reversed the way in which education should flow. It should be coming from the top down, rather than the bottom up. Du Bois' essay is a shockingly relevant condemnation of our current educational model, and I will use it to inform my advocacy as an educator. 

 

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