Madeline Stewart

Assignment One

W.E.B. DuBois, author of “Strivings of the Negro People”, was an educated black scholar and author that had attended Harvard University. At Harvard, he was the first African American individual to earn a doctorate degree, guiding him to be a professor of history, sociology and economics. In many of DuBois’ movements and essays, including “Strivings of the Negro People”, he targets racism, focusing on the Jim Crow laws and discrimination within education and employment systems. W.E.B. DuBois aims to cause his audience to understand what it is like to live as a black man, even if well-educated, in the United States from his perspective during his time. The purpose of his essay was to show that blacks can be seen as equals to whites and contribute positively to society if granted rights. It was apparent that the transition from racism and segregation to equality between blacks and whites was very difficult.

DuBois elaborates how he feels as if he is seen as a “problem” because of his race, (DuBois, 142). Even if you were well-educated, you were still considered inferior if you were black. DuBois style of writing seems as if it would be beneficial to readers of the African American race as well and those that have opposing views. The readers that hold different views than DuBois, could see from a black person’s point of view what it was like to live during this time. “The history of the American Negro is the history of strife,- this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self” (DuBois, 143). The author uses a lot of emotion to get his point across, and he uses this emotion to convey his message in a way that would not offend or bother the opposing readers, members of the white race that favored segregation and discrimination. Also, since DuBois uses a lot of emotion and does not use factual evidence to get his point across, it allows his readers to gain their own opinions, beliefs and ideas based off of his point of view.

DuBois goes into detail on what it was like to live during the time of the Reconstruction movement, which was a time when all blacks were denied equality. He believes that if blacks were ever seen as equals to whites, that their voting rights shall be protected by the law. This relates to the aspect of DuBois being a member of a discourse community. There were those that strongly yearned for equality, these individuals that had “a broadly agreed set of common public goals”, (Swales, 471). This community had a sense of communication amongst each other to hopefully one day accomplish their goal of equality. DuBois writes hopefully and positively, that blacks can beneficially fit into society. “If whites would open economic opportunities to blacks, blacks might cooperate politically with southern white Democrats” (DuBois, 140). He also hopes that the black race can be seen as equal to the white race one day, and it is possible for blacks to be very intellectual and be used as an advantage to society if so.

DuBois writes with a strong sense of emotion, he uses a lot of past and personal experiences to project to his audience how these experiences affected him. With his “soft” style of writing and emotion, I believe DuBois hopes to persuade his readers to share similar ideas, beliefs and opinions as him and also hopefully cause them to not only seek for equality within the United States, but to not even considering viewing different races in a negative light. Although, the transition from racism to equality may have been difficult, DuBois writes with hope and believes that there is indeed a way for it to happen, and provides numerous examples of how blacks can be advantageous to the public.

Thomas, Brook. Plessy v. Ferguson: a Brief History with Documents. Bedford Books, 1997.

Swales, John. ”The Concept of Discourse Community.” Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Boston: Cambridge UP, 1990.