Du Bois's Dark Water

192 Words1 Pages
In an essay of Dark Water, called “The Souls of White Folk,” Du Bois reveals some of the wisdom of his race. Du Bois clearly observed that white men and their understanding of the nature of whites considered himself always right and a black man had no rights which a white man is bound to respect, “everything great, good, efficient, fair, and honorable is “white”; everything mean, bad, blundering, cheating, and dishonourable is “yellow”; a bad taste is “brown”; and the devil is “black”” (Darkwater 30). As Du Bois sees it, whites see themselves in a certain way, namely as superior, civilized, perfect, beneficent, and called upon to help other people with their higher wisdom. But, in truth, as Afro-Americans can perceive quite plainly, whites