Hello and welcome to the sixth installment of super fun homework time with Amber! Just kidding, this blog is for serious scholars only, so if you aren’t serious please exit stage left. Now that I know that everyone’s serious here, it’s time for lights, camera, and ACTION! The lucky piece of literature we’re reviewing this week is no other than, W.E.B. Du Bois’ 1903 book, The Soul of Black Folk.
In his book, Du Bois introduces the term, “double consciousness”, which he later explains as his theory describing the internal struggle black people experience by being forced to adopt more than one social identity and also develop their own self-definition. The Soul of Black Folk was actually the first piece of literature I read in undergraduate school that sparked my interest in activism for the black community. Du Bois was able to articulate a feeling that I had experienced but had yet to find the words for, which to me was not only inspiring but the start of my journey to what I would like to think is completing my life’s purpose.
There are too many instances of black men and black women being completely disrespected, discriminated, and put into dangerous situations do to the color of their skin. Moments like those serve as precedence, creating a silent but well understood rule that for black people assimilating into white culture would be a strategy they needed to adhere to in order to survive. Did you hear that? Not be seen. Not share their ideas. Not to be counted for. TO SURVIVE. To this day, many black men and black women have to question and rethink how they behave, speak, and appear in order to survive. If my documentary project, Color Coded, even makes an inch of progress towards a world where black women aren’t murdered in their sleep by police, or black men are suffocated to death by the police for over eight minutes while they scream out in terror it will be a project worth completing.
This week in terms of my project I think I have made some serious progress. Although I find it extremely difficult to balance regular school work with producing a creative project, a classic case of left brain versus right brain, I think I have survived another week without my brain blowing up (If you’re into explosives there’s always next week). I have scheduled all of the interviews and created a list of final interview questions. My creative direction for the documentary has taken an unexpected (stressful) turn but I like to dream big and I don’t mind putting in the extra time to make sure everything is perfect.
Works Cited
Du Bois, W. E. B. (2008). The souls of black folk. Oxford University Press.