In the seminal work, The Souls of Black Folk, WEB Du Bois discusses the concept of the “Veil” to express struggles of understanding identity and the ways in which blacks and whites view each other. Du Bois discovers the “Veil” as a child during an exchange at school on Valentine’s Day. A white girl from the South had just joined the class, and when Du Bois offers her a card she refuses it. Although the girl never says anything about their differences in race, Du Bois knows in this moment that the “Veil” has come down between them. The “Veil” does not allow the girl to see Du Bois for who he really is, therefore she only sees him as society’s definition of him. The “Veil” prevents blacks and whites from seeing each other the way they see themselves. The distortions that the “Veil” creates bring a sense of false consciousness and a false sense of self, causing both blacks and whites to be unaware of their real identities.
Du Bois explains how the idea of not being in control of one’s own identity makes it challenging to live a meaningful life with harassment, low wages, and poor land to work on. At this point in time, when a white man looks at an African American man, respect and authority are reflected back to him through the “Veil.” Even though the African American man likely does not have respect for the white man, he reflects that image in order to not be reprimanded for acting improperly.
On the other hand, when an African American man looks at a white man, the identity of rapist and thief could be reflected back to the African American man, even though those assumptions may not be true. The false perception of African Americans creates a society in which blacks are oppressed by whites and have to live under strict rules. When describing the typical African American, Du Bois states “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.” The quotation demonstrates the difficulty of getting through each day as an African American under the “Veil”. Overall, Du Bois’s “Veil” ultimately symbolizes the segregation wall between white and black Americans that humiliates and oppresses blacks and distorts the view of both races.
Throughout his seminal work, Du Bois emphasizes the hardships of the “Veil” and the difficulty of going “home.” At the beginning of the book, he describes the African American man’s “longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self.” This longing describes the idea of “home” as a state in which African Americans feel safe and secure in their true identities and achieve true consciousness. Security in one’s identity involves a society in which there is no “Veil” to distort one’s perceptions of another person. According to Du Bois, removal of the “Veil” would allow African Americans to truly live freely and exist at the same level as whites. Du Bois describes this life for an African American as a “co-worker in the kingdom of culture, to escape both death and isolation.” His statement shows the desire for physical and emotional safety in addition to an integrated society. Du Bois believes that if the “Veil” is dismantled, African Americans can finally go “home.”
Du Bois discusses the idea that removing the “Veil” is the key to going “home,” however, it is evident that achieving this goal would take many years of sacrifice and effort, and still might fail. In Chapter 3, Du Bois discusses the influence of Booker T. Washington on African Americans in the south. Washington believes that the way to dismantle the “Veil” involves African American wealth and education, however these factors alone cannot solve the problem. On the other hand, Du Bois believes that one possible way to take down the “Veil” is through culture.
Du Bois elucidates how culture could break down the “Veil” in the final chapters of The Souls of Black Folk, when he repeatedly mentions the Sorrow Songs. African Americans sang Sorrow Songs before emancipation as an outlet to express the hardships of slavery as well as their longing for freedom. The songs connected slaves in the North and South as well as whites through the country. Although they lived in a segregated society, the Sorrow Songs spoke to both blacks and whites because they addressed the discontent and emptiness that they both felt inside. Du Bois explains that culture lives beyond race, education, and politics; it is something that speaks to all Americans. He believes that “through all the sorrow of the Sorrow Songs there breathes a hope – a faith in the ultimate justice of things…sometime, somewhere, men will judge men by their souls and not by their skins”.
