{"id":1079,"date":"2020-05-11T12:37:39","date_gmt":"2020-05-11T16:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/critique1313\/?p=1079"},"modified":"2020-05-17T12:52:22","modified_gmt":"2020-05-17T16:52:22","slug":"nikita-lamba-on-w-e-b-du-boiss-darkwater-voices-from-within-the-veil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/critique1313\/nikita-lamba-on-w-e-b-du-boiss-darkwater-voices-from-within-the-veil\/","title":{"rendered":"Nikita Lamba | On W.E.B. Du Bois’s Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Nikita Lamba*<\/strong><\/p>\n

W.E.B. Du Bois\u2019s Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil<\/em> is an all-encompassing text\u2013part autobiography, part history, part poetry, and part political and economic theory. It dissects questions of race, class, gender, art, language, and pedagogy from the perspective of one who has \u201cbeen in the world, but not of it,\u201d as Du Bois puts it, speaking as a Black American man. (ix)[1]<\/a> Through a series of essays, stories, and poems, Darkwater<\/em> lays bare the ways in which various systems and oppressive forces intersect to form the complex web of American culture and democracy.<\/p>\n

In the Credo of the work, and throughout the text, Du Bois highlights the ultimate goal of his work: the \u201cpossibility of infinite development.\u201d (1)\u00a0 Du Bois consistently comes back to the goals of \u201cdevelop[ing] human souls; to make all intelligent; to discover special talents and genius.\u201d (122)\u00a0 The goal of directing individual action through governmental rule is to achieve \u201cthe greatest good of all\u201d as its end.\u00a0 (78)\u00a0 Significantly, Du Bois\u2019s conception of freedom goes beyond the right to vote and to space, but also includes the right to \u201csunshine,\u201d riding freely on railroads, and the right to \u201cthinking, dreaming, working as they will in a kingdom of beauty and love.\u201d (2)<\/p>\n

It was likely his early sense of belonging and confidence that contributed to the flourishing and creativity of Du Bois\u2019s thought: his Credo is not one of mere survival but one of a radical re-envisioning of an ideal world in which humanity is joyfully thriving in equality along race, class, gender, and national lines.\u00a0 Though he was made aware of his racial difference as a young person, he subverted this alienation and felt \u201cnot so much disowned and rejected as rather drawn up into higher spaces and made part of a mightier mission.\u201d\u00a0 (7) He also writes of the benefits of being at Fisk in the South, where he was among his people who came dancing and laughing, and who \u201cknew and understood\u201d and shared \u201csubtle sympathy.\u201d (8)\u00a0 Perhaps due to his cis-maleness and his apparent heterosexuality, this sense of belonging and finding community was easier for Du Bois than for some other writers on race.\u00a0 Audre Lorde, who also wrote about idealized worlds and belonging, did so in less expansive and reclamatory terms, perhaps constrained by her lesser sense of belonging and entitlement.\u00a0 Some of Du Bois\u2019s ideas are almost startlingly progressive given the era in which they were written, especially his writings on expanding the vote to women, and his writings on the contribution of Black women specifically.<\/p>\n

In \u201cThe Souls of White Folk,\u201d Du Bois dives more deeply into the metaphor of the veil and elaborates on the unique vantage point he has into Whiteness from his nexus as a Black man in the ivory tower.\u00a0 He speaks in particular of the faux benevolence that masks the \u201cvindictive joy\u201d that white Americans feel at the thought of oppression of Black folks.\u00a0 (19)\u00a0 He also highlights a central problem he sees with the world of white men: a refusal to look at the world clearly or to acknowledge \u201chuman frailty\u201d and \u201cshortcomings.\u201d (20-21) For Du Bois, this arrogance hinders the greater project of \u201cinfinite development,\u201d and he felt that the maximum advancement of humankind would only come if the world of white men would abandon its dreams of \u201cfuture kingdoms of greed built on black and brown and yellow slavery.\u201d (33)<\/p>\n

More than simply calling on white men to recognize the benefits of including people of color in the decision-making processes that shape the culture and nation, Du Bois also advocated for decisive, aggressive action on the part of the oppressed, calling for those of darker blood to \u201corganize [their] world for war against Europe\u201d if the racist attitudes of those in power persisted.\u00a0 (34) \u00a0Du Bois\u2019s theory, here, seems to echo the \u201cright to revolution\u201d implied in James Madison\u2019s writings.\u00a0 In the tradition of natural rights theorists, it was understood that in the case of a governmental body that derives its legitimate power from the consent of the people, the people have the right (even the duty<\/em>) to replace it when it betrays its obligations.\u00a0 In Du Bois\u2019s formulation, one could say that humankind is inherently connected in pursuit of the same goal of advancement and betterment for all, and any faction of humankind that hinders this (through oppression, colonialism, or disenfranchisement) can justifably be countered in order to move humanity forward.<\/p>\n

In \u201cThe Hands of Ethiopia,\u201d Du Bois writes that the \u201creal Pacifist will seek to organize, not simply the masses in white nations\u2026but will remember that no permanent relief can come but by including in this organization the lowest and the most exploited races in the word.\u201d\u00a0 (35)\u00a0 The thrust of this idea, that peace can only be achieved by including all nations in organization, also has a significant implication: if long term peace can only be achieved by organizing to include all nations, then violence and rebellion in the short-term can be justified to some degree if it is in service of coercing those with power to extend it to \u201cthe lowest and most exploited.\u201d\u00a0 (Id.<\/em>) Thus Du Bois\u2019s \u201cwar against Europe\u201d is justified as a pursuit of peace, rather than violence, in the same way that a Madisonian may argue that resistance to a disloyal government would not be illegal, since a government not loyal to those from whom it derives its authority has, in fact, lost its authority through that infidelity.<\/p>\n

Du Bois and Madison shared several concerns\u2013\u2013unsurprising since both were deeply interested in how to create the ultimate democracy.\u00a0 Both addressed hesitations about the scope of a republic and the size of its representative body, with Du Bois noting that politics needs to \u201ctouch the matters of daily life\u201d and that public officials need to be chosen in a way that they can \u201crun railways, cotton mills, and department stores.\u201d (87).\u00a0 In Public Opinion<\/em> and Federalist Number 10<\/em>, Madison also contemplates the number of citizens and the \u201csphere of the country\u201d which should be covered in the ideal republic.\u00a0 Both also considered how unequal distribution of property factored in to the functioning of the democracy, with Madison noting in Federalist Number 10 <\/em>that \u201cthe most common and durable source of faction has been the various and unequal distribution of property,\u201d and Du Bois discussing at length the looming need to \u201crepudiate all private property\u201d and to redistribute to allow for \u201cdarker peoples\u201d to \u201cshare in the future industrial democracy or overturn the world.\u201d (57-58)<\/p>\n

Du Bois\u2019s writing, however, though rooted in several foundationally American principles, went far beyond the beliefs of the Founding Fathers.\u00a0 Several essays espoused overtly feminist viewpoints.\u00a0 In \u201cOf the Ruling of Men,\u201d which discusses the expansion of suffrage, Du Bois highlights in particular the need to include the wisdom in \u201cthe knowledge possessed by mothers, wives, and daughters.\u201d (83).\u00a0 \u201cThe Damnation of Women,\u201d focuses on the contributions and vitality of Black women in particular , and acknowledges the difficulties that Black women face as a result of their intersectional identities.\u00a0 His (seemingly very modern) feminism examines the toll that emotional labor takes, in a discussion of the dynamics between waiters and diners in a restaurant.\u00a0 (64-65) Du Bois also advocates for the recognition of domestic and care workers, and of moving toward \u201ca world of Service without Servants\u201d (67; 69)\u00a0 Though these latter two examples do not specifically dwell on women workers, the care worker industry is notoriously female-driven, and emotional labor has been recognized, at least in the modern context, as being more burdensome for women in particular.<\/p>\n

Du Bois goes on to discuss education in \u201cThe Immortal Child,\u201d one of his strongest essays in the work, which examines the inequities in the education system and the ways in which reforming thought and practice around education could potentially provide a solution to the deeply divided and warring world.\u00a0 He argues that whole generations can \u201cbe trained and guided\u201d out of oppressive systems by using education to lift \u201call genius, talent, and intelligence to serve all the world.\u201d\u00a0 (127)<\/p>\n

While Du Bois\u2019s text is revelatory and also quite beautiful to read, two aspects of the work give pause.\u00a0 One is that much is made, especially in \u201cOf Work and Wealth,\u201d of the valuable productivity and potential capital of the Black worker, and in other sections Black folks are celebrated for their specific talents and achievements.\u00a0 While this celebration is certainly not problematic in itself, there is the question of whether centering an argument for rights and liberation on the Black body as a source of productivity or capital is, in some ways, dangerous.\u00a0 There seems to be a potentially dehumanizing effect in recognizing the worth of humans for their achievements and contributions, and as primarily economic actors rather than as beings in themselves.\u00a0 This characterization is not consistent throughout the text, but does seem potentially problematic in certain areas.<\/p>\n

The second aspect, which is potentially more layered, is the way that women are described in the work.\u00a0 Women who are named are often described by their physical attributes first, and this leads to the question of whether this approach undermines his arguments, which are in favor of women having \u201ca life work and economic independence,\u201d \u201cknowledge,\u201d and \u201cthe right of motherhood at her own discretion.\u201d (96)\u00a0 \u201cEmma\u201d is described as \u201c\u2013 slim, straight, and dainty\u201d (95); Harriet Tubman as \u201ca black woman of medium size, smiling countenance, with her upper front teeth gone\u201d (102); Mary Shadd as \u201ctall and slim, of that ravishing dream-born beauty\u201d (103).\u00a0 Interestingly, Du Bois notes later in the same essay that \u201cWhen in this world a man comes forward with a thought\u2026we ask not, how does he look, \u2013 but what is his message?\u201d (106)\u00a0 He does go on to discuss the exclusionary white beauty standard, which disadvantages and dehumanizes Black women\u2013this suggests that perhaps his insistence on recognizing each women\u2019s physical attributes was in tribute to their historically unrecognized beauty.<\/p>\n

This is all to say that inherent in all of Du Bois\u2019s writing is the importance of words and language.\u00a0 His facility with language is part of what makes the work so effective and moving, and his use of interspersed poetry and stories illustrates in more fantastical detail the theoretical concepts that Du Bois works with, and leaves an impression on the mind.\u00a0 He acknowledges the great active power of words as well, and addresses the harm of slurs and of non-recognition in language as well as the agency that language and education can confer.\u00a0 This richness of writing, along with the complexity and nuance of the concepts he engages with, is why Du Bois\u2019s text deserves close and careful reading, and why his ideas and tactics resonate so strongly even a century later.<\/p>\n

Notes<\/h1>\n

* J.D. ’20 Columbia Law School; B.A. Critical Studies, USC School of Cinematic Arts<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> All citations from: Du Bois, W.E.B.\u00a0Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil<\/em>. Dover Publications, 1999.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Nikita Lamba* W.E.B. Du Bois\u2019s Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil is an all-encompassing text\u2013part autobiography, part history, part poetry, and part political and economic theory. It dissects questions of race, class, gender, art, language, and pedagogy from the… Continue Reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1641,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38978],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts-13-13"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/critique1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/critique1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/critique1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/critique1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1641"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/critique1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/critique1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/critique1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/critique1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/critique1313\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}