Souls Of Black Folk Essays (Examples)

Souls of Black Folk A Call for

Souls of Black Folk: a Call for Ultimate Liberation

Published in 1903, Souls of Black Folk by .E.B. Du Bois remains to be one of the most important and a pioneering book on political, economic, social, and cultures lives of African-Americans in America. It is a collection of autobiographical and other essays by Du Bois that touch upon a variety of issues, including slavery, racism, liberation, history of African-Americans, and the questions of identity and consciousness. The main argument of Du Bois in this book is that African-Americans need to develop spiritually and through education to attain full political, economic, and social rights alongside hites in America. Du Bois predicted that it would be a long struggle and therefore argued at the beginning of his book that "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of color line" (Du Bois vii). Throughout the book, Du Bois discusses several issues…… [Read More]

Souls of Black Folk

Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois

The Theme of Double-Consciousness in The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois

In his literary work, The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois discusses the history of the enslavement and struggle of black Americans in the American society for years. In this essay, Du Bois talks about the glorious history, and gradual decline of the black American race as they were put into bondage by the European colonizers in the early 17th to 18th centuries. The history of the glorious black American race is followed hereafter by a discussion of the enslavement of the race, wherein Africans were transported to America to serve as workers and servants to the European-descent inhabitants of the 'New World' (America). The author further extends his discussion and analysis by studying the long history of enslavement, the lives and experiences of black American slaves…… [Read More]

Souls of Black Folks in the Book

Souls of Black Folks

In the book The Souls of Black Folks, author .E.B. Dubois writes about the disparages in the treatments of southern blacks. Throughout the work Dubois discusses the various issues that require attention and the policies in the United States which require reformation in order to create equality in the races. African-Americans of the south deserved the right to vote, a decent and equal education, and above all to be treated equally in personal, legal, and in all governmental matters. In the first chapter, Dubois describes a metaphor which he carries throughout the rest of the text; that of the metaphor of the invisible veil. This veil, he claims, is the metaphorical divider between races, a visual analogue of the race barrier which also serves to symbolize the obstruction of laws and equality which is equated by the difference between appearances of black and white.

Although Dubois…… [Read More]

Souls of White Folk Dubois's

"

The author characterizes the obsession with whiteness and the immorality that it inspires in the treatment of blacks as being (ironically) responsible for the "shriveling and dying" of white souls. He also describes how as a black person, he has an unfiltered view into the naked truth of the character of many white people. Since white people regard blacks as completely inconsequential, they routinely suspend their normal efforts to compose themselves as they wish others to see them. Because blacks are not worth the effort of manners, or courtesy, or conversation, white people actually reveal more about who (and what) they really are underneath the usual veil of social politeness or conventions in the presence of blacks.

The author goes on to explain how the preoccupation with white supremacy also succeeded in undermining the integrity of modern science in the effort to justify the differential treatment of the races…… [Read More]

What Blacks Owe to Each Other

Randall Robinson's book The Debt (2000) about the condition of blacks in America, he states that the United States owes reparations to the descendents of slaves. In The Reckoning: What Blacks Owe to Each Other, written two years later, he moves the emphasis of obligation to other blacks in America. He urgently requests that black leaders and those who have made their way up the socio-economic ladder to work toward improving the dismal situation in urban settings. His plea of help is to the so-called "gated blacks," or those African-Americans who have been able to move up into the middle class, but have either purposely or subconsciously forgotten about those blacks who have become prison laborers in the continuously growing American Gulag.

Robinson leads readers through the life of Peewee Kirkland, a black New Yorker whose tough upbringing led him to a life of crime and to prison twice. Peewee…… [Read More]

Soul Mate Victoria Beckham Recently

Science cannot prove that love exists and yet most scientists have probably felt love at least once in their lives. Just because something cannot be proven using the scientific method does not mean that thing does not exist. The scientific method might never work to prove the existence of soul mates or reincarnation. Folk wisdom has alone carried the torch of belief in such mystical things. Soul mates is a concept that has been around for centuries and rings true on an emotional level.

Psychologists and especially counselors should surely consider learning about the concept of soul mates to help their clients. Clients frequently have relationship issues that can be solved through the type of self-awareness that searching for a soul mate entails. Exploring the possibility of a soul mate can help individuals learn more about their own spiritual selves, encouraging insight and self-awareness. Thus, searching for perfection in a…… [Read More]

Black Preaching in the Black

The Scriptures also speak of dreams and prophesies which come through God's servant, delivering words of God's will to the people Though the preacher may not want to preach these words, like Jonah, he or she is commissioned to do so or he or she is no preacher. The Holy Spirit also is the comforter (John 14:16) and through the words of a preacher, God's people find relief and comfort for their anguished souls. The Spirit is also described as bringing Truth to God's people (John 16:13-14) and speaks the truth on God's authority.

hen the listener he or shears the ord of God from the preacher's mouth, he or she is receiving a personal communication from God, but that is only if the preacher has become God's vessel and delivers the ord received through the Holy Spirit. Henry Heywood Mitchell asks us to understand the culture from which the…… [Read More]

How the Black Citizens of Montgomery Achieved Justice

Montgomery Bus Boycott

"We are sorry that the colored people blame us for any state or city ordinance which we didn't have passed ... we had nothing to do with the laws being passed, but we expect to abide by all laws, city or state ... " (Montgomery City Lines Superintendent J.H. Bagley, quoted on December 3, 1955, in the Montgomery Advertiser daily newspaper).

hat quote may be reminiscent of the classic excuse, "We were just doing our jobs," but so were the thousands of African-American folks who were determined to change the way they were treated in Alabama and in the Jim Crow South. o wit, there were many positive events and memorable instances in the campaigns that represented the justice that African-Americans were seeking -- and achieved -- by basically doing their jobs to bring justice in the 1950s during the Civil Rights Movement. his paper focuses on…… [Read More]

Du Bois' Argument in the

It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this 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. (pp. 8-9)

Evocative here is the constraint of prejudice that denigrates the target into a victim and that exacerbates the surface malice of prejudice by humiliating the victim and having the potential to make him actualize his or her labeling. In a spiral of self-prophecy, the target of prejudice frequently actualizes perceptions of the offender and indeed Du Bois goes on to observe that: "the history of the American Negro is the history of this strife -- this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self" (p.9)

The last words -- "better and truer self" -- are echoes of the epochal theme that Du…… [Read More]

Web Du Bois

EB DuBois

Outline of Critique of .E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk

Collective Nature of the ork

Black Spirituals as Thematic Introductions

Black Spirituals as conveyors of historical record

Black Spirituals as oral tradition

Truth Telling

Assassination of Booker T. ashington and others who agree with him

Capitulation to society as it is, rather than the way it should be for blacks

DuBois, is one of the greatest African-American thinkers, oraters and writers of history. His works are often bold assassinations of the development of the Black, former slave class in the U.S., through periods were they repeatedly faced bold and subtle racism but were simultaneously expected to be successful, because laws were, "better than they used to be." DuBois' work The Souls of Black Folk, though constituent of several divergent essays is to many the source and center of nearly all his messages regarding the truth telling that…… [Read More]

Web DuBois of Our Spiritual Strivings in

WEB DuBois

of Our Spiritual Strivings

In the first chapter of the Souls of Black Folk, DuBois presents one of the main arguments of the book. That is, the notion of double-consciousness or veiled consciousness. According to DuBois, "the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world, -- a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world." By this, the author means that the white hegemony has pre-defined what "blackness" is, to the point where Black people are "always…measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity." He calls for the self-ownership of African-American identity.

Of the Dawn of Freedom

In this second chapter, DuBois presages, "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line." He…… [Read More]

Web Du Bois the Contrast Between the

EB Du Bois

The contrast between the thought of EB Du Bois and that of his predecessor Booker T. ashington is readily apparent in the titles of the best-known works by the two men. ashington's thinking is laid out in his book Up From Slavery, and the title indicates not only an autobiography, but one which is unapologetic in the credence it lends to the typical American capitalist narrative of "rising" in the world. By contrast EB Du Bois offers his trenchant critique of ashington in a work entitled The Souls of Black Folk: the very title indicates that we are meant to be closely considering not materialistic but spiritual values in wondering how the African-American population would make their way in the United States after the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment and into Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and the rest. It is worth considering closely, though, how Du Bois offers…… [Read More]

Up From Slavery by Booker

However, many people believe DuBois wrote his work in direct opposition to Washington's "acceptance" of certain white impositions on blacks, like not being able to vote, or not working for a liberal arts education, but gaining a trade instead. DuBois' main arguments then are that blacks should not "settle" for anything, but fight for equal rights in all areas. In the "Forethought" to the book he writes, "Leaving, then, the white world, I have stepped within the Veil, raising it that you may view faintly its deeper recesses -- the meaning of its religion, the passion of its human sorrow, and the struggle of its greater souls" (DuBois 209). This shows he is writing for a black audience, and he is going to give them clues and questions about their identity, their culture, and their equality, and he wants them to use them to better themselves and stop settling for…… [Read More]

Analysis of Du Bois

Songs of Sorrow

"The Sorrow Songs" is a message that is related to the spirituality of the African-American people. In summary, Dubois gives what he perceives as a message of the African-American people, which is that of hope, not only in that particular time period, but also subsequent generations. Without doubt, African-Americans have made a substantial contribution as to what the United States is as a nation. This, in particular, does not take into account the work that the African-American partook and accomplished for the economy of the United States while being slaves, or the influences of African-American playwrights and originators as significant as all that was. Instead, this takes into account the manner in which the African-Americans' struggle for freedom and liberties instigated by the United States to extensively analyze its morals and epitomes. More so, this caused the United States to question itself, whether it actually was the…… [Read More]

Literature Poetry

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) wrote his 1913 poem "e ear the Mask" in open defiance of the commonly accepted fallacy of his day that African-Americans were happy in the subservient roles they were forced to assume in the face of white racism. Dunbar, through the use of irony, through inverting the positive connotations of smiling, and through the religious rhetorical tropes of exclamation and crying out to God, conveys the cognitive dissonance between the false face African-Americans were forced to portray to earn a living in white society.

The title of Dunbar's and first lines of the poem may at first suggest a mask that an actor or a performer wears. "e wear the mask that grins and lies, / It hides our checks and shades our eyes." (Lines 1-2) However, the next lines of the poem suggest that the nature of the mask that is worn is far more…… [Read More]

Attitude and Behavior Developmental Task

" (Halpin and urt, 1998) Duois states: "The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife -- this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of White Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face. (Duois, 1903)

The work of Pope (1998) conducted a study to make examination of the relationship between psychosocial development and racial…… [Read More]

Du Bois

W.E.B. DuBois: Of the Wings of Atalanta

W.E.B. DuBois was an American Negro intellectual, writer, educator and social activist. He was born in 1868 and lived until 1963. Chapter Five in his collection of essays titled, The Souls of Black Folk, is an essay that uses the Atalanta story out of Greek mythology as a way of discussing what he perceived as a danger to liberal arts education in Southern universities, his concern that black people will be hampered by a loss of liberal arts education and his further concern for the materialistic attitude toward life in general that was taking over the New South.

In the myth of Atalanta, the young woman was a swift runner and she was not particularly interested in getting married. Of course, because all women were expected to get married, this caused a lot of trouble for her, so she set the condition that…… [Read More]

Sociology Sociological Theories Questions of

True freedom does exist, but Black America has not yet found it.

From Redistribution to Recognition?

In this article by Nancy Fraser, the problem of social inequities is discussed in terms of the definitions that lead to potential solutions. Ms. Fraser spends a considerable amount of time examining the mechanics of race, gender, and sexuality. Rather than see society socialistically in terms of economics, the author singles out these purely cultural constructs as things to be deconstructed in order to achieve fair redistribution and recognition. These categories are identities that are formed primarily through the workings of Eurocentric attitudes, beliefs that themselves must be eliminated by concerted efforts at decentering and also revaluing other groups and sets of beliefs. Two primary approaches present themselves - one affirmative, the other transformative. According to the affirmative, programs are aimed at actively moving wealth to underprivileged groups, while those groups simultaneously preserve their…… [Read More]

Slavery an Examination on American

S. Supreme Court. As to religion, slaves were allowed to worship in segregated sections of white churches, but with the advent of Reconstruction around 1867, freed slaves left the white churches and formed their own aptist and Methodist congregations.

The governments which were set up by the North during the Reconstruction period often mandated that segregation remain in place which affected the ability of freed slaves to attend and seek assistance in many local and state-level social institutions, such as colleges, hospitals and welfare facilities. For example, in the state of Georgia, there was no existing system for the care of disenfranchised former slaves and those who suffered from diseases and many physical ailments until the early 1880's. Also during this time, former slaves were forced to live in very inadequate housing, especially in southern cities like Atlanta, Richmond and Charleston. efore the Civil War, black American slaves had it…… [Read More]

Literature and History

tomorrow / Bright before us / Like a flame. (Alain Locke, "Enter the New Negro," 1925)

rom the 1920's Alain Leroy Locke has been known as a prominent figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Through his writings, his actions and his education, Locke worked to educate not only White America, but also the Negro, about the beauty of the Negro heritage. He emphasized the idea that no single culture is more important than another. Yet it was also important to give sufficient attention to one's own culture and its beauty. This was Locke's philosophy of cultural pluralism.

The White heritage has enjoyed prominence for a large part of American history. During the colonization period, the Whites have emphasized their own superiority while at the same time ensuring that people of other ethnic heritages knew in no uncertain terms their own inferiority. This gave rise to a nearly monocultural America, where all…… [Read More]

African-American Perspectives on Education for African-Americans Education

African-American Perspectives on Education for African-Americans

Education has been an issue at the forefront of the African-American community since the first Africans were brought to the colonies hundreds of years ago. For centuries, education was forbidden to enslaved Africans in the United States with penalties such as whipping and lynching for demonstrating such skills as literacy. As the abolitionist movement gained strength and the Civil War commenced, more and more enslaved Africans saw education as a sign of freedom and a representation of the many ways in which they were held back yet simultaneously integral to American culture. Two African-American writers, scholars, and leaders, W.E.B. Du Bois and Frederick Douglass, discuss the power and the potential for education in the African-American Community. Douglass wrote his seminal work, his autobiography, in the middle of the 19th century, before the Civil War, econstruction, the industrial revolution, and the turn of the 20th…… [Read More]

Cultural Forms of Expression African-American

(Cha-Jua, 2001, at (http://www.wpunj.edu/newpol/issue31/chajua31.htm)

Another aspect of representation, however, concerns collective memory and the representation of a shared past. Through the context for dialogue they create, social movements facilitate the interweaving of individual stories and biographies into a collective, unified frame, a collective narrative. Part and parcel of the process of collective identity or will formation is the linking of diverse experiences into a unity, past as well as present. Social movements are central to this process, not only at the individual level, but also at the organizational or meso level of social interaction. Institutions like the black church and cultural artifacts like blues music may have embodied and passed on collective memories from generation to generation, but it was through social movements that even these diverse collective memories attained a more unified focus, linking individuals and collectives into a unified subject, with a common future as well as a…… [Read More]

history political'social economic culture african american

Economic, Political, and Social History
African American culture arose out of the turmoil and despair of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. From West African port towns to plantations, African American culture is unique in that it was forged under the pressure of bondage. People with different cultures and languages formed new identities relative to their subordinate social, economic, and political status—their culture therefore being in part defined by the experience of oppression and the determination to overcome it. Bereft of social, political, or economic independence for centuries, African American culture nevertheless emerged as organically as any other, but flourished especially after emancipation.
Yet the economic history of African American culture cannot be divorced from the human capital model of slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation laid the first foundation stones for African American economic, political, and social empowerment but Reconstruction failed to fulfill the objective of genuine liberation (DuBois, 1994). African Americans in…… [Read More]

Multicultural Newsletter What Is Multicultural Literacy Approaching

Multicultural Newsletter

hat is Multicultural Literacy?

Approaching the subject of multicultural literacy for the first time a student might think it has to do with getting minorities to become literate -- to be able to read and write in English or in their native language. That would be wrong, albeit it is a good goal in terms of bringing all students up to speed in communication skills. hat is important to remember about multicultural literacy is that by the year 2020, an estimated fifty percent of the student population in American public schools will belong "…to an economic, ethnic, racial, religious, and/or social class minority" (Stevens, et al., 2011, p. 32). Teachers and counselors must be fully knowledgeable vis-a-vis the culturally relevant issues that are present when the classroom is diverse, as it clearly is becoming today and will continue to be in the near future as well.

hat Stevens…… [Read More]

Sue Monk Kidd's Invention of Wings Literary Analysis

Literary Analysis: Sue Monk Kidd’s The Invention of Wings
Sue Monk Kidd uses symbol and theme in The Invention of Wings to tell the story of Sarah Grimke, her sister Nina and Sarah’s slave Handful, whom Sarah vows to help to freedom over the course of her life. The novel is based on the historical character of Sarah Grimke, an abolitionist and activist. To tell the story, Kidd uses the black triangles that Handful’s mother stitches into her quilts to symbolize flight and freedom; likewise, the feathers that Handful and her mother collect to stuff the quilt symbolize the spiritual wings with which one can fly to freedom. Kidd also applies the theme of power in both positive and negative terms: Sarah’s trauma at witnessing the brutality of slavery causes her to develop a stutter, which gives her a degree of powerlessness in terms of speaking her mind; likewise, her…… [Read More]

Du Bois vs John Lennon Sociology

Q1. Research the sociologist W. E. B. Du Bois and discuss his contributions to society.

W. E. B. Du Bois, the author of The Souls of Black Folk, was one of the most notable African-American activists of the early 20th century. In this seminal work, Du Bois outlined what he called the double consciousness of African-Americans, “the sense of looking at one’s self through the eyes of others” (Du Bois 5). Black people were simultaneously excluded from mainstream American society yet also forced to understand it, given that they were rendered into a state of economic dependence on whites, thanks to the legacy of slavery Du Bois also made a claim for African-American culture to be the most American of all cultures, given that it was a unique hybridization of African and European ideas, religion, music, and life.

Du Bois, who received his doctorate from Harvard University and taught sociology…… [Read More]

Social Justice for African Americans

Martin Luther King Jr.

The author of this document proposes to write a paper about the life and works of Martin Luther King Jr. It will specifically evaluate the merits of his integrationist works which he foisted upon the nation in the name of civil rights. This topic satisfies the requirement for this research paper in a number of ways. Firstly, it is predicated on one of the five historic ethnic minority groups that are the focus of the class for which this paper is written. Martin Luther King Jr. was widely hailed as a champion of African-Americans. He labored hard to attain civil rights for this group of people. One of the primary ways that he sought to achieve this objective was through the integration of African-Americans with Caucasians.

Secondly, the actions of King Jr. are in accordance with the requirements for action that are a part of this…… [Read More]

Deaf Culture

Deaf culture has become fairly well established in academia and to a lesser degree in mainstream public consciousness. However, Holly Elliot offers a unique perspective on Deaf culture and identity in Teach Me To Love Myself. Elliot begins her narrative by sharing her experience as a bicultural person: someone who had straddled the worlds of the hearing and of the Deaf. Her biculturalism allows Elliot to build bridges instead of barriers, engendering cross-cultural communication. As such, Teach Me to Love Myself offers a tremendously valuable contribution to the evolving and nuanced discourse on Deaf culture.
Elliot had been both hearing and Deaf, but made a conscious decision to “move from the hearing to the Deaf world,” (Kindle Edition). The very notion that Elliot could “move” suggests the notion of the liminal in Deaf identity as well as a conflict between the different worlds in which a Deaf individual resides. Elliot’s…… [Read More]

Race and Racism From Rousseau to Negritude

Firmin / Gobineau etc.

Is race a construct of the Enlightenment? Obviously the European encounter with a racially-constructed "other" begins a long time before the Enlightenment, with Montaigne's cannibals and Shakespeare's Caliban. But the Enlightenment facilitated a kind of scientism in thought that not only gave rise to new disciplines (like anthropology) but also permitted pseudo-science, like the so-called "scientific racism" of the Comte de Gobineau. I would like to examine how the question of race is first framed by Enlightenment thinkers, but then is later transformed in the twentieth century by thinkers like .E.B. DuBois. If indeed DuBois was correct that "the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line," I will also show how those in the Negritude movement sought to overturn the assumptions of racism while essentially upholding the abstract values of the Enlightenment.

Diderot's Encyclopedie and Rousseau's Discours are both central documents…… [Read More]

The Growth of America in Early 1900s

Government Impact the Lives of Individuals

Between 1900 and 1945, the United States was characterized by major demographic, technological and economic changes, which took Americans to the moon. These changes greatly altered the ways that Americans lived and work and constructed a new housing stock, new automobiles and increased production to counter the challenge of the doubling populace. During this period a bigger African-American middle class emerged.

A wave of social and economic changes swept across the U.S. between 1900 and 1945. Nicknames for this period, like the Jazz Age, depict the changes in social conventions which were taking place during this period (Du Bois, 1903). With the booming economy, prices dropped, and wages for most Americans rose leading to a drastic rise in consumer consumption and better living standards. Although women's lives were not significantly transformed by the acquisition of the right to vote, young women changed their dressing…… [Read More]

Web DuBois

W.E. Dubois

Education is one of the fundamental bases of society. Public colleges have represented a strong issue for years. The conditions of work were one of the aspects under debate, but the philosophy that should guide the activity of the public colleges was another theme of utmost importance. Why? ecause what it does is actually set the guiding lines for the entire curriculum. The African -American question arises naturally under these consequences. The present paper will analyze the philosophies of two important figures in this area, namely ooker T. Washington and W.E.. Duois.

It is considered that the agenda of the community colleges is in fact a political agenda. This is true if you consider that social regulations implied by the process of education in these colleges. oth the mentioned authors have suggested educational philosophies that were aimed at improving the condition of the blacks in the United Sates…… [Read More]

German-jews The History of German-Jewish Conflict Is

German-Jews. The history of German-Jewish conflict is widely known but many might wonder why it started in the first place. Why would Germans show such extreme hatred for an ethnic group while the other did not seem to have threatened the latter? This question is certainly strange but answer is worth seeking which also helps us understand the concepts of conformity and social perception that affects global conflicts of such magnitude. The German-Jewish conflict is as much grounded in ugly realities of imperislaims and racism as any other. Arendt discovered two important innovations that were cultivated during the rise of modern imperialism i.e. "race as a principle of the body politic" and "bureaucracy as a principle of foreign domination." (Arendt, p. 185) While racism was seriously grounded in the fear of the white man, bureaucracy emerged as a result of over exaggerated and entirely false sense of protection that white…… [Read More]

The Black and the White Voice in the Hip Hop Culture

Hip Hop and American Youth Culture

Everyone enters a stage of growth when a strong urge to break out of parental dependence, when he recognizes his own person and desires to assert himself. This sense of individuality is an inherent in the American character, especially the youth. Aligned with this restlessness is the restlessness endured for centuries by the Blacks. Their elders may have learned to live with the malignity, although without yielding to it, or have less energy to fight. But African-American youth found a way to vent their revulsion towards the discrimination and abuses to which they are subjected as a race. That discovery happened in the 70s when the hip-hop spirit evolved into a concept and then into music, dance, poetry and many other creative forms of letting the sea of anguish flow out of their soul.

The voice of the young American who seeks individual freedom…… [Read More]

Descartes & Web Du Bois

For Descartes, the individual is capable of thinking beyond the physical and real, and this can be done by arguing based on pure reason. is version of "truths" about human existence and other universal truths about life can be generated from human reason alone, in the same manner in which he proved his existence as a result of his belief that he is "persuaded" that he exists. That is, even though experience and reality does not provide proof of his existence, the fact that Descartes believed that he existed is proof enough that he, indeed, exists in the world he lives in.

Descartes' questioning of reality and experience profoundly helped the manner by which human knowledge is created and developed. Rationalism as a philosophy puts premium on the human ability to think and reason, and through these attributes, be able to create ideas that make sense of one's existence and…… [Read More]

African-American Women in Missouri

history of Missouri there is a strained and well-documented legacy of slavery and conflict over it. As the nation divided itself on the political/economic rather than moral issue of slavery, deciding status of statehood almost entirely on this one issue Missouri was caught in the middle. Yet, this reality had little if anything to do with the reality of life for black women in the state. Black women's lives both free and slave revolved around work and family. In many ways black women, and marginalized women in general are the first real example of a women's working class.

Black women worked in and out of the home either for themselves or for another and lived their lives almost unaffected by the political decisions, made to seem so important in retrospect. That which was important to real working black women was the economy and for that reason most free blacks lived…… [Read More]

Race in March of 2010

" All African-Americans straddle the line represented by their double consciousness, often walking back and forth between multiple identities. The double consciousness may be especially apparent for African-Americans from Caribbean descent who also address the issues related to the immigrant experience.

African-Americans have a unique history among Americans. The slavery experience has defined the black identity, and has created a legacy of racism that persists even with an African-American president proving that most social barriers have been broken down. hile the election of Barack Obama can be viewed as a major breakthrough in race relations, the al-Mart incident also shows that the country has a long way to go before identifying, acknowledging, and healing its own double-consciousness. After all, Americans believe they are the heralds of freedom, justice, and equality. The al-Mart incidence proves otherwise.

orks Cited

American Experience. "Marcus Garvey: Special Features." Retrieved May 4, 2010 from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/garvey/sfeature/sf_words_text.html

Hildebrand,…… [Read More]

Darkwater Voice From Within the Veil by

Darkwater: Voice From ithin the Veil, by .E.B Du Bois. Specifically, it will discuss the philosophy behind the book, and what Du Bois was trying to convey to his readers.

DARKATER have seen the human drama from a veiled corner, where all the outer tragedy and comedy have reproduced themselves in microcosm within" (Du Bois 483).

Many people consider .E.B. Du Bois to be one of the most influential African-Americans to work and write before the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. ritten in 1920, "Darkwater" has become a classic in African-American non-fiction. He believed Africans should govern themselves and argued seriously for the end of colonial rule in Africa. Many of the essays in this book also carry this central theme.

Colonies, we call them, these places where "niggers" are cheap and the earth is rich; they are those outlands where like a swarm of hungry locusts white masters…… [Read More]

Film the Help Review

The Help: Film Review and Discussion
The film The Help (2011), which was adapted for the screen and directed by Tate Taylor from the novel by Kathryn Stockett attempts to tackle heavy complex subject matter from a questionable perspective. The film is set in the 1960s in Jackson Mississippi, two details that make the film as loaded and complex as it can possibly be. The 1960s were the Civil Rights era in America, and Jackson Mississippi was a dangerous place. It was home to the confederacy and was a place where hundreds of innocent blacks had been lynched, among many other horrors that they suffered. This review will focus on two characters: Skeeter Phelan, the main character, played by Emma Stone, and Minny Jackson, played by Octavia Spencer.
Emma Stone’s character Skeeter is perhaps one of the most problematic in a film that is already very problematic. The film attempts…… [Read More]

African-American Religious Movements the African-American Religious Experience

African-American Religious Movements

The African-American religious experience went through a period of "…extraordinary change" in the years between I and II (Fulop, et al., 1997, p. 314). Several "sects" and "cults" worshiped in storefront churches, moving from "mainline churches" into organizations that had political, fraternal and "benevolent" approaches to spirituality. But as to mainline Black churches, between 1926 and 1936, the Black Baptist movement grew from 3.2 million to 3.8 million and hence by 1936 the Black Baptist congregation had become the largest Christian church affiliated with the African-American community; indeed, 67% of "all Black Church members" were connected to the Black Baptist movement (Fulop, 315). This growth within the Back Baptist faith was partly due to the decrease in Black membership of the African Methodist church, the Churches of Christ and the Churches of the Living God (Fulop, 315).

Nation of Islam: allace D. Fard came to the United…… [Read More]

Sweat by Zora Neal Hurston Specifically it

Sweat, by Zora Neal Hurston. Specifically, it will contain a biography of the writer and criticism of her work "Sweat," along with another story.

HUSTON'S "SWEAT" AND ANOTHE STOY

Hurston was born on January 7, 1891. She grew up in Eatonville, Florida, which was the first all-black town incorporated in the United States. "She received her early education at the Hungerford School, modeled after Tuskegee Institute, with its guiding principles of discipline and hard work; Hungerford's founders had studied with Tuskegee's founder Booker T. Washington" (Hill XVII). An avid reader, she soon learned to love myth and lore, and teachers and friends encouraged her love of books and reading. When she attended college, she majored in English, and began writing for several journals. She wrote "Sweat" in 1926. She also studied anthropology, and traveled to the South to research black folk tales and voodoo. She also wrote plays and journal…… [Read More]

Pudd Nhead Wilson by Mark Twain

PUDD'NHEAD WILSON

Mark Twain was a great writer with perfect blend of wit and humor. While his work focused on the humorous aspects of every day life, he would often bring a touch of earthly wisdom to it, thus perfecting the art of story telling. Twain would often use the latest trends of his time and base a story on them in such a manner that it would give a whole new dimension to the original idea. This is what he did in Pudd'nhead Wilson too. In this novel Pudd'n head is the word used for the leading character of the novel, a man named David Wilson. While his real profession is that of a surveyor, the man is interested in other things as well such as palmistry. But for some odd reason, he becomes interested in finger marks and decides to save people's fingerprints to see each one was…… [Read More]

Cultures in Conflict & Change William Faulkner

Cultues in Conflict & Change

William Faulkne leaves us in suspense at the end of a tubulent sequence of events titled "Ban Buning." Who killed whom? We could speculate fom othe books pehaps but those wods ae outside this stoy. Given that stict constaint, we don't eally know. Saty watches De Spain and his hose vanish in the distance and heas thee shots, which he assumes kill his fathe at least, and pehaps olde bothe. This is the widest possible assumption but a fulle analysis would have to exploe othe possibilities. The esult fo Saty is the same: He uns away fom fathe, bothe and the women's cultue egadless who pulled which tigge(s) at the De Spain ban. Abne Snopes will appea hee as 'AS,' De Spain as 'DS' and 'Saty' as 'CSS' fo bevity, but also abstaction, because Faulkne ('WF') sets up abstactions, though symbolic equations that pemeate the…… [Read More]

Hurston and Hughes the United States Has

Hurston and Hughes

The United States has a history of racist policies towards African-Americans and other minorities. The predominant ruling class of this country has always been wealthy white Christian men. In order to sustain this position of power, all other minorities whether those be based on skin color, gender, or religion have been marginalized and classified as other. This othering has engendered a feeling in those people of the marginalized groups a feeling that in the United States, particularly in the first one hundred years of the nation's history, those othered people have minimal importance and are inferior to the people in power. riters Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston were both part of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and their works reflected the mentality of the oppressed African-Americans living in the United States at a time when they were still a marginalized people. Using her short story…… [Read More]

Philosophy Class The Topic the Mind Body Problem

philosophy class. The topic the Mind/Body Problem. read attachment order answer questions.

No, human beings are not simply bodies. We are actually spiritual entities that are trapped within the physical vessel of a body. There is a mental component of our existence that enables us to decide things and to facilitate action. That action is carried out by our bodies. But what human beings actually are, are spirits within a physical form.

Due to the aforementioned facts, people are not bodies plus minds/souls. I have outlined what human beings are in the preceding paragraph. The soul is that part of the typical triad of expressions of human existence (the other two are the body and the mind) that is most closely akin to the spirit. Spirits exist both within and outside of human beings. Spirits can be found in other sentient beings, and near inanimate objects. The soul is eternal,…… [Read More]

Dio Providence and the Simple

Certainly, common sense tells us that the wisdom literature of different societies is similar. Christianity must have struck a cord with the simple people of Greece as it did with the simple people of Jesus' time that lived the simple life and trusted in providence for their sustenance once that had done what they were morally obligated to. They needed to be happy and content with their station's in life. This way, they would not suffer from the anxiety of worrying about what would happen tomorrow.

While this was mentioned above, we must again state that while the Roman's may have ruled the Mediterranean world, it was the Greeks who colonized the minds of the area's inhabitants. The minds of Jewish peasants may have been against Greek pagan thought, but otherwise embraced the Greek world with a Judaism that spoke Greek. They thought more like the Greeks than they would…… [Read More]

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

Lottery

Literature that followed World War II in the United States tended towards the cynical, the depressive, and a sense of mortality that has not been as intense before the World War broke out for the first time. Furthermore, there came about a basic lack of trust in traditional, time-worn institutions, including the government and general social values. These mistrust issues and difficulty readjusting to post-war life are exemplified in stories such as "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. In this shocking story, a community's tradition of yearly ritual sacrifice demonstrates general society's lack of basic critical thinking. It also demonstrates the reluctance to discard time-honored traditions, even if these have been proven outdated and unnecessary.

Jackson's short story opens with a deceptively idyllic scene, in which the author describes a clear, sunny day, with rich sunshine and summer colors. Throughout the story, the gathering of people and their interactions give…… [Read More]

Daoism as a Way of

14). Certainly, the vast majority of people in the West have come to think about the world around them in terms of the Greek philosophical tradition, combined with some version of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religions. For example, Freiberg (1977) reports that "Philosophical systems based on positive and dialectical logic have co-existed throughout Western history, but dialectical philosophies have become increasingly important during the last two centuries" (p. 3). This author suggests that the emergence of formal symbolic logic in recent years can be attributed, at least in part, to the development of dialectical logic following the philosophy espoused by Hegel, particularly as it concerns its subsequent sociological reinterpretation by Marx (Freiberg, 1977). By sharp contrast, though, the Daoism traditions are virtually outside this hard-wired way of thinking about the world, and it quickly becomes clear that there is some type of conscious effort required in order to "think outside the box"…… [Read More]

Pop Is Tomorrow's Classical- Paul Mccartney Discuss

Pop is tomorrow's Classical"- Paul McCartney. Discuss this contention within the context of rock/classical music collaborations since the early 1950s.

Classical Rock and Popular Prophecy

To the average music-listener, musical genres are easily divided into homogenous groupings without any danger of overlapping one another. Certainly, there are rare occurrences of "cross-over" hits on the radio that find airplay on both Adult Contemporary and Country stations, or those releases which find an audience among both Easy Listening and Rock fans. Another seemingly strange occurrence that may be observed by the slightly more alert music consumer is that time shifts musical pieces from one genre to another, and yesterday's Alternative Rock is today's Easy Listening, yet even this phenomenon is considered an anomaly of the music industry. A simplicity is desired among musical elitists that preserves some musical forms as valid, labeling others as mere fads. However, the deep impact of musical…… [Read More]

History of Development of Blues

Out of about 40 million slaves that were transported from African to the United States, only 15 million of them could survive, however they ended up in pure hell. It was expected of the African-Americans to meet the demands of two ideas, both of which met the needs of the rich white Americans. Thus, where slaves had a disguise to serve their masters and please them, they were just not being honest to themselves in the least bit, and they were living according to the wishes of their masters to escape the beating or to avoid being scrutinized any further. Having said that, just because they had no choice but to live up to the two ideals, it did not mean that there were not any rightfully revengeful and rebellious slaves that went against the books and refused to accept being a cookie cutter cut-out. It is assumed that the…… [Read More]

Tom Shulich Coltishhum a Comparative Study on

Tom Shulich ("ColtishHum")

A comparative study on the theme of fascination with and repulsion from Otherness in Song of Kali by Dan Simmons and in the City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre

ABSACT

In this chapter, I examine similarities and differences between The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre (1985) and Song of Kali by Dan Simmons (1985) with regard to the themes of the Western journalistic observer of the Oriental Other, and the fascination-repulsion that inspires the Occidental spatial imaginary of Calcutta. By comparing and contrasting these two popular novels, both describing white men's journey into the space of the Other, the chapter seeks to achieve a two-fold objective: (a) to provide insight into the authors with respect to alterity (otherness), and (b) to examine the discursive practices of these novels in terms of contrasting spatial metaphors of Calcutta as "The City of Dreadful Night" or "The City of…… [Read More]

Changing Musical Style of Bob

He, therefore, continued experimenting with new musical style, and his 1964 album, Another Side of Bob Dylan hinted at the things to come. The album was categorized a "folk album" only because Dylan had not yet decided to go electric and continued to use an acoustic arrangement for his songs. As for the content of his songs on Another Side, they had already veered away from the political protest of folk. The album started with the light-hearted and personal "All I Really ant to do" and ended rather significantly with "It Ain't Me" -- Dylan pointedly saying adieu to his folk audience. The album's departure from folk traditions was a prelude to a more dramatic change in Dylan's musical style that was to be unveiled in the following year.

Dylan goes Electric

The year 1965 was the start of perhaps the most concentrated, magical, and impressive two-year period of creative…… [Read More]

Amadou Hampate Ba's Cultural and

" (Pettersson, 2006) Oral and written verbal art languages are both used for the purpose of information communication as well as information presentation with the reader and listener receiving an invitation to consider the information.

The Narrative & the Symbolic

The work of Abiola Irele (2001) entitled: "The African Imagination: Literature in Africa & the lack Diaspora" states that Hampate a "...incorporates the essential feature of the oral narrative at significant points in his work in order to reflect their appropriateness to situations and for special effects. Their conjunction with the narrative procedures sanctioned by the Western model thus enlarges their scope and give them an unusual resonance. At the same time, although he writes with conscious reference to this Western model, he does not feel so constrained by the framework of its conventions that he is unable to go beyond its limitations. His departures from the established codes of…… [Read More]

Military Finding Oneself in the

That is why I became Treasurer of the ives Club, out of gratefulness for this extended family. I know many people of my generation struggle to find 'who they are' but the structure of the military offers a potent and compelling answer to that question. To serve means always to be at home amongst people who understand exactly what you are going through: "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in" (Frost 118-119).

Being in the military does not mean, contrary to conventional wisdom, that one must obey an unthinking policy of 'my country right or wrong.' The men and women in the military must obey because soldiers cannot afford to question every order and live, however, this does not make them unthinking automatons -- far from it. In fact, soldiers think more about the great questions of life and death,…… [Read More]

African Cuisine

African estaurant evival

New York is home to people from all over the world, and it is well-known that they often bring with them cuisine from their homelands. Foodies descend on food courts in subterranean malls in Queens, ussian bakeries in Brooklyn, and ethnic food trucks pretty much anywhere throughout the five boroughs. For being a cosmopolitan city with such cosmopolitan tastes, surprisingly little attention is paid to the diversity of African food. The continent of Africa is rich in food tradition and, increasingly, we are seeing these traditions manifest throughout New York. This trend is occurring in many places, in particular Manhattan and Brooklyn. In fact, several openings over the past few years have dramatically altered the African dining scene, and this development is very much worthy of coverage. This citywide exposure to the African food trend makes it an excellent topic heading into the summer eating season.

There…… [Read More]

Sampling in Authentic Hip-Hop According

In the "hard-core" sub-genre of hip-hop, one sees a much clearer emphasis on street and urban authenticity -- rather than on sampling. For N.W.A., hip-hop is an expression of lived life -- a kind of militant message passed down to urban blacks from men like Malcolm X

But not all hip-hop comes from such types. The Beastie Boys are an example of hip-hop artists who thrive on a different message. Much of their music is centered on adolescent/teenage angst -- white suburban kids enraged by suburban living, but moved by urban beats. They inter-mingle their own white perspective with samplings from an assortment of other artists -- thus making their mark on the hip-hop scene. Their aggression appears to be real, like 50 Cent's -- even if it is different in its source. The Beastie Boys are, of course, legends in hip-hop -- but Mickey Hess denies that their authenticity…… [Read More]

Music History Appreciation

Music appreciation [...] my personal attraction to jazz music and some of its composers and performers. Jazz music has been called a particularly American invention, and the many forms of jazz epitomize a successful and exciting country on the move. Jazz encompasses many facets of music, from be-bop to swing, and one testament to jazz's endurance is its continued popularity today. Jazz breathes life into the listener, and embodies life in America.

Jazz, a state of mind! " (Osgood 7)

Jazz is a uniquely American creation, and perhaps that is one reason I enjoy it so much. In the early part of the 20th century, the music we call jazz and blues were beginning to develop into popular songs people enjoyed. One critic writes, "Unquestionably, the most significant contribution made to music by the United States in the period under discussion lay in the field of popular music" (Hansen 84).…… [Read More]

Kill a Mockingbird the Novel to Kill

Kill a Mockingbird

The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by author Harper Lee tells the story of a southern American family living in a rural community during the Great Depression. Atticus Finch is the single, widowed father of Jeremy, nicknamed Jem, and Jean Louise, nicknamed Scout. Many people of the town of Maycomb, Alabama dislike the Finches because Atticus is educated, because of the way that Atticus is raising his children and also for his attitudes towards segregation and racial equality. Mr. Finch tries very hard to teach his children right from wrong, to let them live and make some of their own mistakes, and to raise them as intelligent human beings who judge men by the quality of the character, not the color of their skin. Although Atticus Finch is not a perfect man, he is ultimately a good father and a very good man.

Most of the plot…… [Read More]

American Politics Through Film and Fiction

Hunt for Red October

Few fictional texts are as redolent of the global Cold ar as Tom Clancy's novel of east-west submarine intrigue and confrontation, The Hunt for Red October, first published in 1984. For those who have the benefit of hindsight it may appear that the mid-1980s was a period in which the Cold ar was clearly coming to an end, but at the time the east-west confrontation was firmly embedded in geopolitical reality and western culture. The threat to the west from the Communist Bloc seemed as real as ever, and appeared likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Hunt for Red October may appear now as a relic of a lost age, but that judgement is only possible retrospectively and has no meaning for the significance of the book as it was received at the time.

The book presents itself first and foremost as an exciting story…… [Read More]

Multi Ethnic Literature

Multi-Ethnic Literature

The focus of this work is to examine multi-ethnic literature and focus on treating humans like farm animals that can be manipulated for various purposes. Multi-Ethnic literature offers a glimpse into the lives of the various writers of this literature and into the lives of various ethnic groups and the way that they view life and society and their experiences. Examined in this study are various writers including Tupac Shakar, Dorothy West, Petry, and others.

A Rose Grows From Concrete

One might be surprised to learn that Tupac Shakar was the writer of many sensitive poems. Upon his death in 1996, Tupac's mother released a collection of poems entitled 'A Rose Grows From Concrete', which includes various love poems among the 72 poems in the collection. Tupac writes:

Things that make hearts break.

Pretty smiles

Deceiving laughs

And people who dream with their eyes open

Lonely children

Unanswered…… [Read More]

Traditional Se Asian Bamboo Flutes

Some Chinese researchers assert that Chinese flutes may have evolved from of Indian provenance.

In fact, the kind of side-blon, or transverse, flutes musicians play in Southeast Asia have also been discovered in Africa, India, Saudi Arabia, and Central Asia, as ell as throughout the Europe of the Roman Empire. This suggests that rather than originating in China or even in India, the transverse flute might have been adopted through the trade route of the Silk Road to Asia. In addition to these transverse flutes, Southeast Asians possessed the kind of long vertical flutes; similar to those found in Central Asia and Middle East.

A considerable amount of similarities exist beteen the vertical flutes of Southeast Asia and flutes from Muslim countries. This type of flute possibly came from Persians during the ninth century; during the religious migration to SEA. Likeise, the nose-blon flute culture, common to a number of…… [Read More]