The Veil

Du Bois's veil metaphor, "In those somber forests of his
striving his own soul rose before him, and he saw himself,
-darkly as though through a veil" is an allusion to Saint
Paul's line in Isiah 25:7, "For now we see through a glass,
darkly." Saint Paul's use of the veil in Isiah and later in
Second Corinthians is similar to Du Bois's use of the
metaphor of the veil. Both writers claim that as long as
one is wrapped in the veil their attempts to gain
self-consciousness will fail because they will always see
the image of themselves reflect back to them by others.

Du Bois applies this by claiming that as long as one is
behind the veil the, "world which yields him no
self-consciousness but who only lets him see himself
through the revelation of the other world." Saint Paul in
Second Corinthians says the way to self consciousness and
an understanding lies in, "the veil being taken away, Now
the lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the lord is
there is liberty." Du Bois does not claim that transcending
the veil will lead to a better understanding of the lord
but like Saint Paul he finds that only through transcending
"the veil" can people achieve liberty and gain
self-consciousness.

The veil metaphor in Souls of Black Folk is symbolic of
the invisibility of blacks in America. Du Bois says that
Blacks in America are a forgotten people, "after the
Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and
Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a
veil. The invisibility of Black existence in America is one
of the reasons why Du Bois writes Souls of Black Folk in
order to elucidate the "invisible" history and strivings of
Black Americans, "I have sought here to sketch, in vague,
uncertain outline, the spiritual world in which ten
thousand Americans live and strive." 

Initial Thoughts

Dubois' theory on "double consciousness" explains a state of mind, a way of being, that results from being disenfranchised from American identity and therefore from effectiveness in the political sphere.  He feels that until an African-American person  can merge his sense of being African with his sense of being American--for he sees these as separate and constitutive of two disparate ways of understanding himself--until he can merge these, says Dubois, a black person will not be able to participate effectively in American society as a whole nor understand himself as a complete human being: he will always see himself within "the contradiction of double aims." I wonder if his view on "double consciousness" is only considered by him to be experience of disenfranchised African-Americans, who or does he think this idea can help explain the feelings of any estranged group within society.

"Double consciousness is the sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others." This dual identity of being "Negro" and American doesn't allow blacks to have another source upon which to base their identity. This results in a "veil" between the black man's world and the white world that establishes blacks as both American citizens and American victims. Blacks brought their slave status with them into American society, and the double identity of being both "free" and "unequal". To achieve freedom, progress for blacks should include economic success, education, the right to vote, and recognition of their spirituality, but never were all of these issues addressed at the same time. This "veil" taught blacks in rural communities to accept that what they have is good enough, resulting in the world asking little of them, and the blacks giving little to the world. Urban blacks can attain material wealth, but they must turn their backs on their spirituality that distinguishes them as black people.

Overall, I believe DuBois believes that double consciousness does not offer any solutions for blacks, but by recognizing its existence and getting rid of it, only then can we come up with solutions. When blacks achieving self-respect and respect in their own communities becomes the same as achieving them in white society, only then can real progress be measured.