The Surreality of Survival

How can you be sitting there 
Telling me that you care-
That you care? 
When every time I look around, The people suffer in the suffering 
In every way, in everywhere....

-Bob  Marley

When W.E.B Dubois introduced and addressed two concepts that describe the quintessential Black experience in America— the concepts of “the veil” and “double-consciousness.” - I was blown away. Although I did not grow up in the US, I connected to what Dubois was saying. These two concepts gave a name to what so many African-Americans felt but previously could not fully express.  The implication and connotation of these words were far-reaching because not only did it briefly describe the dilemma of being Black and American then, it rings true to the core and essence of what it means to still be Black and American today.  Du Bois describes double consciousness as a "peculiar sensation. . . the sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity". According to Du Bois assertions, the Black American exists in a consistent "two-ness, - an American, a Negro". Furthermore, the African American lives shut behind a veil, viewing from within and without it. During the nineteenth and twentieth century, it has been all but impossible for an African American to function as an American who happens to be an African as well. It was even a more ridiculous notion that he can function as an African who happens to be born into the American nationality. This is why African-Americans have become, in my opinion,  the greatest masters of disguise as they have had to operate in two Americas for survival. Is this not part of the reason why African-Americans have such a unique and rich tradition of jaw-dropping artistry be it in dance, poetry, music, athletics, literature, painting, acting......? Operating within the Duboisian Veil - which is a metaphor for the separation and invisibility of black life and existence in America - makes the soul beat against psychic prisons to proclaim to the world, "HERE I AM!!!"....Quite surreal....
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OneLove
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:::MME:::