[upbeat music] >> Today we're gonna talk
about W.E.B. Du Bois. The official title's "W.E.B.
Du Bois and the Epiphany of Double Consciousness",
so we're gonna hone in on some key ideas of his. I wanna say this is gonna
be an appetizer for Du Bois. How many of you have read
"The Souls of Black Folk"? Few of you. Some of you may read him. At this point, depend on
where you are in our program, you may read him. In the new version of our
program he's part of an elective. And some of you may be reading him already or are reading him this
semester or next semester. He was a recent addition
to our curriculum. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna,
this is gonna be an appetizer. I think my initial plan for talking about him was more ambition
for the one I'm gonna give you. But I realized that I tend to go deep and need a little extra time
to talk about a few things. So the first thing I'm gonna do is to, I'm just gonna read some
portions of his biography. W.E.B. Du Bois lived to be 95 years old. 95 years old. And that's an amazing feat within itself but because of when he
was born and when he died, the kinds of things he was
able to see is amazing, right? So he's born in 1868. 'Kay so think about where the country is. This is the middle of the
reconstruction period. The Civil War is still cooling off, right? And he dies in 1963. Think about that. Born in 1868 and dies in 1963. So I put these dates on there, I'm just gonna be literally
reading some highlights of his biography just
for you to get a sense. This is, those of you who have the book, this is listed in your book. But he's so... And then after I do that
I'm gonna dig into his, one of his writing, "The
Souls of Black Folk", the one that is most well known. And we're gonna dig into
some of the concepts and what I'm highlighting
in the title over there. So just a few things here
with respect to his biography. So first, 1868 he was born. 1888 he received the BA
degree from Fisk University. Fisk is an HBCU. Do we all know what an HBCU is? It's an historically black
college and university. And we're gonna talk a
little bit about that because those universities
were established during the reconstruction period which Du Bois talks
about in this book, okay. And he talks about the
reconstruction period because what he really is getting into, what is the aftermath
of the end of slavery? What is that? To some extent we're still
living in that aftermath. To some extent. Right, but he's talking
about it in 1901, 'kay. So he graduates from Fisk
University with a BA, 'kay, in 1890 he earns a BA cum laude, Cum laude in philosophy at Harvard. And he gives the commencement address. In 1891 he receives an MA
degree in history from Harvard. In 18, let's see, 1894
he's denied a Ph.D. degree at Friedrich Wilhelm University because of resident requirements, but in 1895 he receives a
Ph.D. in history from Harvard and is the first black student to do so. In 1896 he writes a, he
publishes his doctoral thesis. So his dissertation, here was the title: "The Suppression of
the African Slave Trade "to the United States
of America, 1638-1870," and it was the first volume in the Harvard Historical
Monograph series. I highlight that because
it talks about many things but he's doing kind of a
historical review of slavery during that period of time. And what's interesting, he talks about, one of the things that's
discussed in that dissertation is the discussion of slavery in the Constitutional Convention. And there was a serious
debate as to whether slavery would continue at the
founding of the country and the kind of the
debates between the north and the south and various
things that continue to linger. And when you see that,
you see that this matter of slavery is this irritant. That continues in some
ways to haunt the country. It was there at the founding and the decision of the founders, the conclusion they drew was that we would continue slavery up until 1808 at which time we would abolish it. But they wouldn't really abolish slavery, they would abolish the slave trade. And so, you know, with
the founding fathers, they are sons of the
enlightenment, they believe in a reasoned gradual approach to change. So they postponed the
end of slavery, right? So anyway, that's part
of the discussion there. 1897 he accepts a faculty
position in economics and history at Atlanta University. 1902, he's offered a teaching position at Tuskegee Institute
by Booker T. Washington. This is very important
because Book T. Washington is one of his key interlocutors. They have philosophical differences about what black America
should do after slavery. We'll talk a bit about him. In fact, Du Bois dedicates a whole chapter to Booker T. Washington. Booker T. Washington has a famous speech in 1895 called the Atlanta compromise and it's a very interesting take on how blacks and whites
should relate to each other. And we'll talk a little bit about that when we talk about the
differences of opinion with Du Bois and Booker T. Washington. Booker T. Washington was born in slavery and he became a very successful man economically and politically. 'Kay, will talk later about that. 1905, Du Bois helps to
found the Niagara Movement, a group of black leaders
who work to promote the full civil and economic rights. Now this meeting's really important because this meeting eventually leads to the formation of the NAACP. So in 1909 he joins the recently founded National Negro Committee
which eventually becomes the formation of the NAACP. 1915 Booker T., now I meant
to say something again with respect to, what date was that? So in 1902 he was offered a position at the Tuskegee institute
by his intellectual rival. He declines the offer, okay. So that speaks to some of
their rift there, right? What's interesting about that,
and I'll talk about it later is that Booker T. Washington
believed that African Americans should focus on industrial education. Trades. Du Bois believed in people having, receiving higher education. Right, a liberal arts education. Right, the irony is that at
Booker T. Washington's school, the Tuskegee Institute, he
would hire African Americans who were educated at
institutions of higher learning. Right, so that's part of the irony. But they had difference, and we have that debate today, right? What is the value of a
liberal arts education versus practical real world skills? We're still debating that today, right? And they had that conflict. Let's continue here. So in 1915 Booker T. Washington dies. Du Bois, he makes a
publication called "The Negro". And then what's interesting,
he organizes a protest against D.W. Griffith's inflammatory film, "Birth of a Nation". Any film students in here? Do they require that? Is "Birth of a Nation" required? 'Kay. Its one of the most racist
films in American history and it is also one of
the most innovative films in American History. That's the tension in it being taught in film programs 'cause it sort of creates a kind of film vocabulary, right? I won't get into detail
with respect to that film, but you see Du Bois protesting that. And so already you see
the kinda different waves of the American experience
that Du Bois is a part of because he lived so long and
because of when he was born the kinds of things he's
able to encounter here. 1919 he organizes the first
Pan-African congress in Paris. So the notion of Pan-African is the idea of kind of regrouping the person's who have been participating
in the African diaspora. So African Americans
aren't the only people of African descent, right? They're people who have lived in Africa, you have people in, say, Fiji, or people in the Bahamas,
or people in South America, or even places like Mexico
where you have folks who are of African
descent but are Mexican. Right, so you have people
from all around the world who are persons of African descent, and this is this Pan-African concept. If you're familiar with the
person of Marcus Garvey. He's a black leader in
the early 20th century. His idea was to kind of
organization African Americans or African peoples around
this Pan-African concept. Can we kind of reclaim, black person's kind of reclaim
their sense of identity in the aftermath of
slavery and colonialism and all these various kinds of things. He's very much involved in
this Pan-African concept. 'Cause in 1921 he organized another, it's the second Pan-African
Congress held in London. In 1922 he advocates for the passage of the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill. In 1923 it's the third
Pan-African Congress that is held in Lisbon. And then in 1927 is the
fourth Pan-African congress. I'm just givin' you a sense of kind of where his priorities are, and how they evolve and how they shift. In 1933 he grows increasingly skeptical of the possibility of integration. And begins to consider
a stance on segregation. And so there's this disillusionment with the prospect of progress. Again, think about what he's seen. Think about what he's seen, think about what he's experienced. He was not born a slave
but he knows people who lived in slavery. He has people he knows who are very close to that experience. And to go from here to here
and to still ask himself is why, 'cause black people
are free, technically speaking. Why is there disillusionment
in 1933 regarding this matter. Right? 1945 he attends a San Francisco conference to draft the United Nations charter. Look at the scope of the kinds
of things he's involved in. Again, born in 1868, helping
to work on the charter for the United Nations in 1945. In 1952 the U.S. Department
of State denies Du Bois a passport when he refuses
to sign an affidavit. 1954 he quotes, the supreme court decision that ends legal segregation, he's shocked. And he's quoted here saying, "I have seen the impossible happen." Think about that. This is a man who was
almost born in slavery and lives to see the end
of legal segregation. 1956, and I'm quoting, and I'm,
the chronology I'm borrowing from Oxford World Classic's
version of W.E.B. Du Bois's "The Souls of Black Folk". In 1956 he sends a message of support to the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Wow. What a life lived. I mean he, wow. During the Montgomery Bus boycott, so this is a young
Reverend King just kind of getting his political kind of legs going. I mean 'cause his destiny
was really to be a pastor. And not really get so
much into the politics. His father was a pastor
and he was supposed to take over his father's church. And this business boycott
is one of the things that began to drag him our of a situation in which he's simply pastoring a church. And so Du Bois sees him at that moment. 1960, he travels to Ghana and Nigeria. 1963 he dies, I'm quoting
from the text here, he dies in Accra on August 27th. Check this out. The eve of the Civil Rights
March on Washington D.C. Night before the march on
Washington is when he dies. Woo! Amazing man. So that's just a sense of him. His accomplishments, I mean his, but we can talk, we can
have a whole lecture just on his biography. But I just wanted to give
you those context here. But now I wanna dig into this text here, "The Souls of Black Folk",
and we're just gonna, we're just gonna give you an appetizer. We're gonna stick with
the first three chapters, and within those three
chapters we're gonna deal with some basic concepts. And I might not even get to all of them because of how deep they are. So I wanna start with chapter one here. He makes some amazing statements and we'll do a little close reading here. I'm gonna read some things and I'm gonna pause and
talk about something. This is a really interesting text because at the beginning of each chapter he puts the lyrics to what he calls one of the sorrow songs or the songs that slaves would compose and sing as a means for a number
of things during slavery as an outlet, as a release,
as a way of communication, as some way to respond to the oppression. That went outside the scope of what their masters
were prescribing for them. Right and he's documenting
some of these songs and he actually put some of
the musical notations there. But I love the opening
of the first chapter and we're gonna do a
close reading of this. "Between me and the other world there is ever an unasked question." I'm gonna say it again. "Between me and the other world "there is ever an unasked question." That's a powerful statement. And I'm a sucker for openings. If anyone knows me, you know, "Moby Dick", "Call me Ishmael." Oh that's so powerful. We're not gonna talk about "Moby Dick". What an opening, what
an opening line, right? Different text, different
context, different genre but, "Between me and the other world "there is ever an unasked question." So I kinda wanna, as I
looked at that concept, see, where do I wanna go. I think I'm gonna go here. You gonna stay there for me? All right. So... Between me and the other world. Remember the parable Or the story Jesus told about
the rich man and Lazarus? Remember that? And the rich man was, well let's just say he didn't go to the good place. And here's the rich man
with the flames burning him and he's looking over at
Abraham and he's asking, he wants Abraham to dip
his finger in some water and to cool his tongue, right? But Abraham can't do that, why? There's a gulf between the two of them. It's a simple request. They're so close and yet so far. 'Kay, that's this. This is me and then there's
this other world here. And what is there, what's between us? There's an unasked question. That's just a fascinating idea. The unasked question. 'Cause it's sort of the
inverse of Socratic, isn't it? It's the inverse of Socratic. It's the unasked question. But in it's being unasked, it exists, and it's a barrier between
me and the other world. I'm gonna read another portion here. And this is a... So I'm reading it. "Between me and the other world "there is ever an unasked question: "unasked by some through
feelings of delicacy, "by others through the
difficulty of rightly framing it. "All, nevertheless, flutter around it." In contemporary vernacular we call it the elephant in the room. "They approach me in a
half hesitant sort of way. "Eying me curiously or compassionately." Curiously or compassionately. And then instead of saying directly, "How does it feel to be a problem?" That's the question they want, they wanna ask the question. But they don't ask that,
they're thinking that question but they won't ask it. How do you broach the subject? And they get into other thing, they say, "Well, I know
an excellent colored man "in my town," or "I fought
at Mechanicsvile," or "Do not these southern
outrages make your blood boil?" In other words they're
trying to frame small talk around this deep controversial issue. Now I recognize the
complexity of the race issue in that it goes beyond
a black white dynamic. I understand that. But for the purposes of this text I'm going to talk in terms of the author, which the author really focuses
on this black/white dynamic so I'm gonna communicate in those terms even though I understand
that it's beyond that. And if your experience exceeds
the black/white dynamic, you will find probably some
parallels in this experience. Some of your experiences will be the same, some of them will be different. But you'll find that
there's some parallels with other experiences,
but with respect to that I'm gonna speak in these terms here. You ever wonder why, it's so weird when you have casual, when black people and white
people have casual interactions there's a weirdness in the air. Oh we're just going out to dinner. Or we're just having class together. Or it would just be the simplest thing and it's this awkwardness. You don't know what to do with it. Du Bois is talking, he's
telling you what it is. He's telling you what it is. It's just in the air, you
don't know what to do. Why am I behaving this way. Why, all up until this moment
I was just going about my day, going to the bank, studying my
books, or driving in my car, and then I have this interaction
with this other person who's a different race than me and all of a sudden it's awkward. Awkward silences and pauses
and what is going on? So let's unpack this again. Here's me, here's the other world. Why can't we just get along? Why? There's this unasked question. What's the unasked question? How does it feel to be a problem? Or for me, the contemporary
question really is, what's it like to be black? Anybody ever take you out to lunch and ask you that question? They've taken me out to lunch
and asked me that question. Not in so many words,
but they kinda say well, "So tell me about yourself,
like what do you like?" Um. "How do you feel about stuff?" "What do you think about this?" It just [laughs]... You know and sometimes
they get me 'cause I think, sometimes I think they
actually wanna talk to me about something serious, like
we're gonna work on a project. In other words I actually think they're looking for my intelligence. But no, they're not. They're trying to
understand what is it like? Now... [students laugh] See I'm not white, so I don't
know what your experience is. But my guess is that doesn't
happen to you as often. That people of color don't come up to you in some kind of way, say,
"What is like to be white?" What do you you guys do
when you go to church? What kinda songs do you sing? Like, when you got home,
what kinda food do you eat? What kinda music do you like? I mean what do you think is funny? What's your politics? Do you know why they
don't ask the questions? They're not curious. You know why they're not curious? Because it's broadcast to everybody what you prefer. What you think is funny. What you think is not funny. And so it is the black person and you can extend this to
people of color in general. He's focusing on the black/white dynamic. How does it feel to be a problem? 'Kay, and he's trying to... [sighs] See, I mean, so he's
a Harvard grad, right? He's a thought man. He's a thought man. But he's trying to
process this experience. Right, so there's the thought, there's the intellectual side kind of dissecting, but
he's experiencing this. So what happens when
thought meets experience. And this is a question for
you as Socratic thinkers and dialoguers, you've gotta
ask yourself this question because you guys are excellent
people at discussion. You're excellent people
at critical thinking. But when that thought meets
experience, what happens? How does the game change? And so what he's saying is,
I'm an intellectual guy, I understand this, but
I'm having this epiphany. Things I don't get from book knowledge. Things that don't come
because I read a book. He's saying I'm experiencing this. He says, "And yet," he
says in the next paragraph, he says, "And yet, being a
problem is a strange experience." It's a strange experience. Peculiar even for one who
has never been anything else. In other words, yeah, I'm experiencing, but it's like, I don't know. I don't know. I'm gonna read something else he said and then I'm going to comment
on an experience of mine that connects with this, so... That is a, so I'm reading some
classic lines from the text. Here's the next one here. I'm gonna slow down here. Oh, that's what I wanna read here. So going back to the experience piece, so he goes from that to then
talking about an experience in childhood, because
it's usually childhood that teaches you, that where
you have this epiphany. You know, so, for example like... If you're African American,
right, at some point, it usually happens, I'm sure this happens to almost every African American, right? You say, "Why do people call me black?" But as a child you learn your
colors and so there's brown, there's black, there's yellow. You kinda look at your skin and it's like, I'm not black. Why do people call me black? They just can't, you can't reconcile that. I don't understand that. There's those little
epiphanies, like, what, why do? Why do we do this? And why did I say that? And why do these people
have lunch together? And those people have lunch together? You know kids. You remember when you were a kid. You're sorta like, why do people do? Okay, so here's in this
next part of the chapter, he's talkin' about this moment
where he has this epiphany. It's an epiphany. And I'm gonna read it. He says, "In a wee wooden schoolhouse, "something put it into
the boys and girls heads "to buy gorgeous visiting cards. "10 cents a package, "and exchange." You know how you do. When I was little we had
little Valentine's cards and we would come to
class on Valentine's day and everyone exchanges Valentine's cards. That's what I'm imagining it's like. Even though it's not talking
about Valentine's Day, it's something like that. You know, will you be my Valentine? Give Valentine's card to
everybody in the class. You get a Valentine, you come away home with a bunch of Valentine's
cards and some candy? That's what I'm thinking it's like. I don't know how you did
it when you were younger. That's how I did it. "The exchange was merry till one girl, "a tall newcomer, refused my card. "Refused it peremptorily with a glance." Woo, what was in that glance boy? [student laughs] She didn't just refuse it. It was the glance. Now everybody in this room
is smart enough to know racial tension is all
in the body language. All body language. I mean sometimes it's words. It's the body language. Everybody's reading it. And that's how you know it's awkward. Body language. I mean she may have just
turned her eyes down, I don't know what she did but you just, man, that glance said, she didn't, it wasn't just the refusal, it was the glance. See sometimes people don't refuse you but they give you the glance. It's all right there. I mean that tension is woo,
you can cut it with a knife. Why is it weird? Du Bois is unpacking it. This is why we have to study history. Because the present moment
does not provide enough context to make sense of contemporary issues. It doesn't. It doesn't provide enough context. You're like, "Why we
keep talkin' about this? "And why is this in the news? "And why do we do this?" Uh-oh, have you looked at history? Oh, yeah. We've inherited something. We didn't show up in the United States. Our forefathers and
foremothers have left us with a nice little package. Is it fair we're born and
just have to deal with it? No, but we're here. We have to wrestle with it. Think about this. Now, did you help found America? Anyone here help found America? Anyone there with the founding fathers? You was there when the
Constitution, Declaration of, nobody was there? 'Kay. 'Kay, but who here doesn't want to claim the rights and privileges
of being in the country. Anybody here? Well, don't make no political statements, I'm just gonna ask a
rhetorical question here. Okay?
[students laugh] But you know, most people are like, they're not gonna pass
up that opportunity. I want my rights. For whatever it is. I wasn't there, but I've
inherited the right. Woo wee. Everybody wants the right,
nobody wants the responsibility. If you inherit a business
from your parents, you get the profits, but you also get the
lawsuits and the debts. You didn't create the debt. You didn't create the lawsuit. But once the business is in your name, you're responsible,
they're coming for you. We didn't found the country
but we're claiming rights. If you're gonna claim the rights
you gotta claim the debts. You gotta claim the lawsuits. It's on you. Doesn't it say we the people? Yeah, see, folks in Congress, they're just the representatives. We're responsible. We're responsible. So we're responsible. You can't just claim the rights. People... People who just claim rights,
they're not grown up yet. That's what kids do. Kids, you know, yeah, I'm
gonna go get my own car and I'm gonna do this,
don't wanna pay for the car. I may be talkin' to somebody,
and I'm sorry if I'm, am I gettin' in your Kool-Aid? [students laugh] Yeah, I'm grown, I could do what I want. But you ain't payin' for nothing. You ain't payin' for insurance
and all that kinda stuff. That's kid, when you grown,
you gonna have the car, but you gonna pay for the car. You gonna pay for the gas, you
gonna pay for the insurance. Even if it means you gotta eat Top Ramen. That's what you gotta do. And as Americans we just
gotta roll up our sleeves and say, okay does my,
we gonna claim a country, we gotta claim responsibility. I wanna say, and I digress, but I didn't digress, that
was, that was necessary. So let me finish here. See what's in a glance? It's all kinda stuff in a glass isn't it? And I'm gonna continue. "Then it dawned upon me in a
certain," after this glance, and the refusal, he says,
"Then it dawned upon me "with a certain suddenness "that I was different from the others." Hey, everybody has the moment. They all have their moment,
usually in childhood. "Or like mayhap in heart
and life in longing, but shut out from their
world by a vast veil." So close, but so far. So he talks about, because up until that point, every kid just thinks they're a kid. You know, you play with so-and-so,
whoever, doesn't matter. And then there's some kinda
incident lets you know, that's not your world. That's not, there, that's not your world. Yeah, you guys play together. I know that. Go to school together, yeah, I know that. Yeah, I know you know that,
but that's not your world. That's not yours. Nobody says it outright. It's just an invisible set of rules. Don't belong to you. That was his epiphany. Some of you were there for the story slam. And some of you heard my story. I've shared it before. I'll share a little bit again here. When I was a senior in high
school I was at the post office and I was just dropping off invitations to my graduation party, right? And the post office
worker calls the police. I didn't know she called
the police on me though. I didn't know that part. Until I hears somebody shouting and I, you know, I was at the
counter with my mail and I heard it from my ear, and I said, there's a disturbance, woo, there's police activity, woo, is there a criminal in here? And so I just turned
and looked to make sure I wasn't in anybody's way and I turned and the police officer was like this. It was just, "Put your hands up." Right? So I spread 'em on the wall and I didn't know what was
goin' on, but I said, "Okay." And you know, they patted me down and they put me in handcuffs and they took me out of the post office and I was directed to
the police car outside and I was sitting in the back handcuffed. I don't know what happened. I don't have any explanation, nothing. 'Kay, so just imagine,
you're goin', whatever, I don't know what you're doin', you're going to the store, whatever. And police officer just grabs you. You don't know why. Okay. What frame of mind were
you, let's see high school, how old is, what 17, 16? What is that? Something like that? What is a 16 or 17-year-old boy supposed to think about that? I don't know police officer
protocol, why would I know that? I don't know. Nobody explained anything. I'm in the back of the police car. There's two police officers. One goes back into the post office, I assume to question,
what I found out later is the post office worker
who called the police. They probably had some
secret button or something. The other person's, you
know, I'm in the back there, this guys in the front,
and he's questioning me. Like, "Are you, what set are you from, "what gang are you from?" I said, "I'm not from a gang, I just," and I wasn't saying anything. Until he asked me the question. And he's, I mean, I'm looking, he's angry. He's just like suspicious. And I'm like, in my mind
I'm like, why is this dude, I don't, why does he
think I did something? A gang member? What, do I look like I'm in a gang? And I just remember at that moment, he was lookin' at me, but
he wasn't lookin' at me. I mean he was looking intently at me and it was kind of in
slow motion for a second, 'cause the, I was like,
this man doesn't see me. I don't know who he lookin'
at, he not lookin' at me. But he's lookin' at somebody
that made him angry. Who is that man? But he thanks that man is me. I mean he's talkin' to me
like he knows I'm guilty. Like he knows I'm from a gang or whatever. And so he goes through that and I just calmly answer his question. And then he says, "You're too
calm, you must be guilty." Now I didn't think about it then, but now I think about it. Was he trying to get me to say something or do something that would
really get me in trouble? Is this police protocol? What are you supposed to do? So they go through all that. And then at some point
his partner comes back and says, "Ah, you know,
it was a big mistake. "The post office was robbed,
like three months earlier, "with three people in ski masks, "so they saw you and called the police." None of that made sense to me, but hey, I was just happy to get out of there. But that's my, that
was one of my epiphany. Now I, you know, that
wasn't the first time I understand I was black,
but here's what I understood. Here's what I got very clearly. Somebody's threatened by you,
especially if you're black, they act first and ask questions later. If you are a threat, they act first and ask questions later. Now I don't walk in fear
because I don't walk in fear. I can't do that. My God's too big to walk in fear. But I'm also not a dummy. When I see the kind of force someone can respond to me just
because they feel threatened. All bets are off. They can do whatever they wanna do. If they're wrong you just
have to deal with it later. Epiphany. That's, those are the kinda,
those situations help you understand the invisible
set of rules out there. Now here is where Du Bois
is, woo, man this is classic. This is one of the passages you should, if you're gonna memorize
some, you memorize this one. He says after, it's a little mysterious, but I'll explain it. He says, "After the Egyptian,
the Indian, the Greek "and Roman, the Tutan and
Mongolian," he's using vernacular from the early 20th century here, 'kay. He says, "The negro is
a sort of seventh son." When he says seventh son
he's referencing mythology. The mythologies that talk
about there's something special about the seventh son. There's traditions behind that, okay? So when he says that, that's
what he's talking about. The negro, this is the
vernacular he's using, is sort of a seventh
son, born with a veil. Now when he says veil
here, it's a play on words because in the African American community at this time, if you had a baby
who was born with the caul, and the caul's like, there's
some kind of placental thing over the baby's face when it's born, the tradition in the African
American community was that they assume this child has
some kind of prophetic insight. So he's playing on that. That African Americans are
sort of born with this veil, that one the one hand camouflages, hides, renders invisible, but
provides a kind of insight. This is what he's talking about. Born with a veil, and gifted he says, with second sight in this American world. When he says American world, that's the other world. That's not his world. American world, or white world. You see double. He says a world which yields
him no true self-consciousness but only lets him see himself
through the revelation of the other world. So you understand yourself through the way that white people see you. That's how you see you, it's how white people see you. That's the doubleness. And you recognize, this
isn't really my world. This isn't really my neighborhood. This isn't really my school. This isn't really my church. This isn't mine, I know that. And so I have to abide
by two sets of rules. One, to accommodate the
way white people see me, and one to just figure out who I am? And they call it, today, code-switching. Doesn't just apply to black people. Applies to other groups of folks. Cod-switching. In other words, I talk one
way around white people, when I'm around black
people I speak differently. And when I mean that I don't mean going from speaking the king's
English to talking slang. I mean that there's just
subjects you don't talk about or jokes you don't talk about
or other kinds of things because you don't want to disrupt your status in that other world. You gotta protect it
because there's cache. There's cache and there's resources. You know here's my
theory about integration. I don't think black people
fought for integration for the purity of the concept. I think they fought for integration 'cause they wanted resources. Resources weren't equal. The law said separate but equal, but the problem was it wasn't equal. And I think most black people at that time would have been fine segregated if they could get the same resources. Why go through the trouble? That's why white people
don't often go the other way. Why don't we get, what's the motivation? There's three motivations. But they're not, there's
three motivations that I see. When white people go the other way. When white people wanna
go to the non-white world. One is charity. Two, entertainment. Three, exoticism. You know what exotic is? It means that I can live out
an alter ego through you. I can be somebody else through you. So I'm around you not because I like you, because of you who you help me become by being with you. By singing your music. By dancing the way you dance. By wearing your colors on my face. It's an exotic experience. But there's not an economic
reason to be there. Why are you goin' to a black bank? Why would you go into a black bank? If you're white, why would you do that? Most white people don't have a motive. There's white people who
live in black communities. Not many of 'em. Why? But black people and other
people of color will come to white communities, why? Resources. It's nice in Irvine. It's all organized, planned out. It is manicured, boy. Woo they built Irvine in a factory. [students laugh] Newport Beach? Look nice. The trade off, folks racist over there. You ever been to a restaurant and you go to the
restaurant and you sit down and you go eat, and in about 15 minutes you've cleared the room? Happened to me and my wife. Orange County. I never notice it 'cause I'm so hungry. So it's like, I'm enjoying my food. And my wife, she's like,
did you see the couple over, they don't, they left. What the? I mean this had, I never notice it. I promise you. 'Cause I'm so hungry, I
just wanna eat my food. It's a long way to get to
Orange County from here, you know what I'm sayin'? So I'm ready to go eat my food. She's like. And when I say they're racist over there I don't mean every single person. But I'm saying if you're black, you see the racist ones. The racist ones stand out. It don't have to be everybody
to feel like everybody racist. See one white white person
mess it up for everybody. You don't have to personally be racist, but other white people mess it up for you. And my question is, when you
see them doin' trifling things, what you doin' about it? They messin' it up for you! We ain't all like that. Okay, when you see people
do stuff like that, when they makin' jokes,
when they doin' dumb stuff, what are you saying in response? Hey, they affecting the whole white brand. And then folks get angry. You should do a social, I've been wanting to do
this social experiment, I don't wanna do it 'cause I
actually think it's dangerous. But I wanna hire, like
a thousand black actors, and just drop 'em off in Newport Beach. Walkin' around [laughs]. [students laugh] just doin' regular stuff. Oh, that would be funny. I mean I really wanna do it. I just, but I think it's dangerous. I actually think that that would be threatening to some people. And I don't know what they would do. Now to be fair, everybody do something a little weird when somebody that's not like
them shows up in their space. Everybody does that to some extent, right? I mean, I go to a
predominantly black church. If 300 white people walked in
there, we'd be lookin' at you. [students laugh] Two or three, oh you know, whatever. But 300 of y'all, we'd be lookin', we'd be wondering, like
what, well welcome, I'm glad you at church, how
you doin', like, why you here? [students laugh] We'd be askin' those questions, so that's, some of that's human nature. Some of that's human nature. But because there's a power dynamic, white communities have resources in ways that other communities do not. Why is that the case? There's a history. See I didn't even, I've barely
gotten to the book here. But my point is, okay, lemme... So the beginning of the second chapter he says the problem of the
20th century is the problem of the color line. The problem of the, this
is what he said in 19-0, he said, this is prophetic. The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line. But the issue is for me,
is not just the color line, it is the money line. You ever heard of reparations. After the Civil War, black people were free so to speak. What do you do? They created what they
called the Freedmen's Bureau. It's the first large
scale welfare institution. To help black people and poor whites to get adjusted in the
aftermath of the Civil War. They helped black people
get legal marriages. They improve employee/employer
relationships. They started black schools and all those other kinds of things. But one of the things that
was not dealt with very well was the issue of land. Black folks were promised
40 acres and a mule. Spike Lee named is production
company after that. 40 Acres and a Mule. Black folks never got it. So lemme ask you something. What's the exponential economic
effect of not having land? So think about your great,
great, great, great, grandparents and my great, great,
great, great grandparents back in the 1860s. Your family has land, my family does not. What happens in terms of the disparity between wealth in those groups of people if you do not have land? How do you make that up? Times several decades. All these decades. All the way to 1963 when Martin
Luther King is still saying, "Y'all have not cashed our check." Literally, he says it. In his "I Have a Dream" speech. He says the words, we
go in to cash the check, I'm paraphrasing, and it
says insufficient funds. 1963. How hard do you have to
work to make that up? So black folks who were
never actually immigrants, they were slaves, but they
were denied the benefits of a traditional immigrant experience. Like western European
immigrant experience. When you come here and America's rough, they give everybody a hard time, but when they give you a hard time you get your little group
together and you start your own newspapers, and your own stores, and your language stuff and whatever, and you create your own stuff. Banks. You do all that stuff. And that's your response
until you have the capital to do your own stuff. Black people were never
afforded that opportunity. And not just economically,
and I don't even have time. How much time, I have 10 minutes. What did I, am I supposed to end at 8:40, oh I have to have time
for questions, don't I? I can stop and take
questions if you want me to. I've got 15 minutes. You want me to keep going? Okay, so. [students laugh] Okay, so, it's not just the economic part. It is the identity part. This is the, oh man I don't have time, I'm gonna need, I need four
or five more lectures here. So here's the thing, here's the thing. Here's part of the challenge with slavery, you know that Du Bois is
wrestling, because slavery, what is slavery? What is it? What is it anyway? Is it chains and laws? There's a man named Orlando Patterson, he wrote a book called,
"Slavery and Social Death". And he says that the
power of slavery is really in the symbols, not the laws,
and the physical bondage. 'Cause a lot of folks were slaves. Not just black folks. All throughout human
history, slavery's not new. It's not unique to black folks. It's white people been slaves before. I'm tellin' you, it's
happened to a lot of folks. What's unique about black folks is how powerful the symbolism is. That's what it is. 'Kay. Patterson says, slavery's
not this stuff over here, it's three things. First of all, it's social death. Most people became slaves, historically, by being captured in war. And if I capture you, I'll keep you alive, but if I keep you alive
you become my slave. And if you become my slave that means you are no longer a person. Your identity is through me. Everything you are comes through me. Who you are is about me. In fact I'm gonna give you my, you don't have a name any
more, you got my name. You don't have a history
anymore, you got my history. Right, so you are physically alive, but socially you have no existence. You're a non-person. The second thing is natal alienation. I kinda just mentioned it, but basically you cut
ties with your history, your language, your identity,
your country, everything. Black folks don't know
where they came from. We already know we came from Africa. Which country? And the contemporary division
of countries in Africa were not created by Africans. They were created by European colonists. So really it's a tribal affiliation and you don't know unless
you take a, what is it? Something ancestry.com? They got African
ancestry.com these days too. You can take that test and you
can find the tribe you from. That's how you gotta do it. And thirdly, it's a generalized
condition of dishonor. There is no prospect
of honor for you ever. You have to do this because otherwise my power as a master is not
complete because being master and slave requires some level of acting. I can't just do what you want me to do. I've got to act in a way
that gives you honor. And here's the really problem people had with the end of slavery. Slavery provided clarity. And when you take slavery away we don't have clarity. Clarity about what? What roles people play. You heard Plato. Gold, silver bronze. Everybody to they parts. If you don't, if the
cobbler doesn't cobble and the the guardian doesn't guardian, and the farmer doesn't farm, how we gonna have a city? And if you not a cobbler,
then how can I be a guardian? Here's the phrase that comes out a lot. Black people gotta stay in they place. You gotta no your place. Why? 'Cause if you not in your place, I don't know where my place is. Especially if you're poor and white. If you're white and poor, I'm sorry. Right? Because a poor white person
can still claim, I'm white. You have a degree? That's cool. You have a house, that's cool. But you know what, you're black. Whiteness cancels it out. And so, I'll probably end with this here. 'Cause I was scribbling this down, I was, let me read it. This is just notes from some
other time and place here, but I think this, you know how you get a thought and you're just about to
eat a donut or something and then you just, oh,
let me write that down. Write that down, so okay. Slavery provided clarity for people. It put people in the proper place. It created a framework
for social relations that helped white people
make sense of their world themselves, socially, economically, culturally and spiritually. Slavery helped everything make sense. When you eliminate slavery,
white people are disoriented. It raises the prospect of no
longer having black people to be the repository for their fears and self-doubts and insecurities. Because that's what a, I'm
gonna just, 'cause it's recorded I'll just say N word. That's what an N word is. It's the projection of what you fear most about yourself onto someone else. And that's what an N word is. It's a mythological creature
created by the fears and doubts of the people
who created the term. They afraid of themselves
so they personified it in a creature so they could
say that's the not me. I'm not, at least I'm not black. Yeah, but at least I'm not black. They don't know what to do with the freestanding black person, a black person who talks back. That is the "negro problem" as
in the vernacular of Du Bois. What do you do with a
black person who's free? Who just talks. And just says what they think, and does what they want to do? And they wanna go to the
store, they go to the store. They wanna start a business,
they start a business. If they wanna start a
family, start a family. They just do regular stuff. I'll read one more thing
here with respect to this. I got time. I got like five, six minutes, okay. I'm quoting from this, Dr.
Thompson and I are working on something, he's editing something, I'm making a contribution. He's a historian, and I said
well I'm a literary scholar, you sure you want me to contribute
to this historical thing? He said yeah. Okay, so I'm doin', I'm reading,
this is just a draft here. But anyway. I'm gonna just quote, I
think you'll get it here. It says, I'm reading this, "The crisis became particularly pointed "as Anglo-Americans came to terms "with the double-edged sword
of the democratic principal "they heralded. "Democratic equality raised for whites "the prospect of a demotion "as much as it did a promotion." In other words, democratic
equality is threatening. Think about it. When somebody move into your neighborhood, whoever it is, you excited? New folks move into your
school, you excited? Oh they get to have what we have now, that's gonna be great. Who is excited about that. First thing is, who are
they, what are they about? Are they taking my stuff? Are they gonna have room for me? Equality's cool when you don't have it. But if you got the status already, you not excited about somebody
else having the status. If everybody a VIP, nobody's a VIP. To begin, yeah, I think
I mentioned that here, I don't have to quote all this,
I think I got the concept. That's the idea. Free black people means they
comin' for stuff I have. They get the same rights I have, which means we're interchangeable. That means that person could have my job because they're the same as me. So more competition. Human nature folks. That's not a white thing. That's just a human nature thing. We're threatened by more
people having access. We wanna be special, we wanna be the VIP, we want the award. If everybody gets the award, we gonna be as mad as
Dash in Mr. Incredible. [laughs] So anyway that's the appetizer for today, I hope you read the book. [students applaud] Oh man, that's a huge question. I mean you have to ask me
a more specific question. What are you thinking about it and how do you want me to respond to it? >> Student: What do you think
W.E.B. [speech trails off] >> Ah man, I think he's
be even more cynical than he was already becoming in 1960. He moved to Ghana. He couldn't take it. He couldn't take it. I mean, think about how long
he's been working on this. To see the end of slavery and
then see things not change the way they're supposed to. He's thinking like, "I don't
think it'll ever change." I mean it's the same issue today, right? You have... You can cite examples of black progress like you can cite Booker T. Washington. But during the time of
Booker T. Washington there was also lynching
going on at the same time. Right, so you can cite examples of black prosperity. But you can also cite examples of black folks being killed
and trying to explain why that's the case. And people are trying to understand that. Why is that case? Why don't you have stories
like that for white people? Unarmed white people being
killed by black police people? You don't... I mean there's a lotta
explanation for that. But that is the thing. Now let me say something
briefly about that because, oh man, I don't
think most police officers are doing crazy things. I certainly don't have many interactions with law enforcement, and when I do it's usually a non-story. To be honest with you. I don't think everybody,
I don't even think it's a police officer issue by itself. I think with police officers, the thing with police officer is just it's heightened stakes. They are militarized and they have the authority of the state. Every place they go is
a heightened situation. Now you couple that with a
history of racial tension, woo. But it's not just police
officers, it's security guards, it's random citizens
with vigilante justice. Stand your ground laws. So to that extent I, it's kind of unfair to some extent to just focus on police officers because it's broader than that. I don't think police officers
are more or less racist than the general population. I really don't. I just think it's a high-stakes situation and if you look at the history
between law enforcement and the black community,
there's always been tension. Since the colonial America,
there's always been tension. So that's a little bit, 'cause
you asked a broad question, so I just gave you an answer
that was conveniently had. Yes ma'am? Oh they could both do the same thing. Grow. Gotta grow. The problems that we
face, this is Einstein can't be solved at the same
level of thinking you had when they were created. We all have to grow. They are bigger than our
current level of maturity. So everybody just has
to mature and grow up. We can solve the problems better. And scripture just calls that love. Love makes you mature. Yes sir? I didn't, I kinda started on it. [students laugh]
Yeah, so double consciousness is just, I didn't even
finish reading the quote. Let me at least give you the courtesy of reading the second have of the quote. It says, "After the Egyptian and Indian, "the Greek and Roman,
the Tutan and Mongolian, "the Negro is sort os a seventh son, "born with the veil and
gifted with a second sight "in this American world. "A world which yields him
no true self-consciousness, "but only let's him see himself "through the revelation
of the other world. "It is a peculiar sensation,
this double-consciousness. "This sense of always looking at oneself "through eyes of others,
of measuring one's soul "by the tape of a world that looks on "in amused contempt and pity. "One ever feels his two-ness." It's the two-ness. Always the two-ness. You walk in, you're just two. Two-ness. "An American, a Negro,
two souls, two thoughts, "two unreconciled strivings,
two warring ideals "in one dark body whose
dogged strength alone "keeps it from being torn asunder." It's that two-ness. And back people get a
bad wrap 'cause they, "You not patriot, how come
you don't like America?" Double consciousness, we like America. But... You need to read
Frederick Douglas' speech, "What to the slave is the fourth of July?" That'll tell you what
double consciousness is. What to the slave is the fourth of July. Yes, ma'am? [student murmurs] I mean, if you're African
American, what's the draw? What's the draw? Go ask some African Americans,
they could tell you. But that's the basic question. That's for anything. How come I don't see more of whoever? You just have to ask whatever
group I wanna have more of, what is the draw for that group? Oh, I wouldn't even
know how to answer that. I mean, I think we're
all rich and complex. I think we all are, and I think most demographic categories
camouflage that complexity. That's what I'm saying,
I think everybody is. White people included. So that's what I think,
it's just hard to see with the categories people put people in. >> Student: Yeah, I guess it's
how significant are those? There's lots of other types. >> Well, I think white people
need to unpack whiteness. It's fairly complex. It's fairly complex and I... If you unpack how complex
your experience is it will give you insight into how complex somebody else's experience is. I think, I can't speak
for every white person, I'm not saying what every
white person thanks, but I think most white people don't think their experience complex. They just think, "I'm just a person. "I'm just an American. "I'm just clear. "I'm just nothing. "Everybody else has a culture, I don't." Oh no, that's not true. Okay, Miss Dawn? That's a good question. I think before to ask the question, I think we shouldn't talk,
I think we should marinate. I think it's too much talkin'. I think, this is just my thing, okay? I think most white people
should go embed themselves in nonwhite experiences. Don't say anything, just be there. For like a year, two years, three years. Watch all the body language. You'll learn way, if you
go join a black church and be there for like three, you will learn way more about black people than you would takin' 'em out to lunch. There's no conversation you gonna have that's gonna teach you more
than just sittin' there. Woo, you learn a lot. Yes ma'am? You just go and that stuff
may show up, but so what? You just stick it out. With all the awkwardness. You stick it out. And you figure it out. And you just, I'm determined
to ingratiate myself to this community and
I don't care how much they givin' me, 'cause you're
gonna get strange looks and people gonna stare you up
down, give you the once over and probably say some
racist things to you. But you gotta still stick it out 'cause you determine,
I'm gonna make this work. Yes ma'am? >> Student: We talked about
Du Bois [speech trails off]. >> I don't know, I don't
know if I'll live long enough to see that, I could just
focus on my own evolution. I just have to grow. I just try to grow every day. That's what I try to do. And try to learn and try to be better. That's really all anybody can do with the help of Christ. Gotta have Christ. You can't, you know, we need grace. I mean this stuff takes faith. When you see how crazy people are and how angry people are, how the church gonna come together? Well you better have some faith 'cause you're not gonna
see it in the natural. And you better trust God,
but we make ourselves a committee of one and we
decide I'm going to grow. Personally. What does Joshua D. Smith
need to do right now to be more like Christ? That's what Joshua D. Smith needs to do. And that's my contribution,
you do the same for you, and we'll be better. >> Announcer: Discover you're called to be at Biola University. A leading Christ centered
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