Souls of Folk

“How does it feel to be a problem?”… A powerful statement that represents the experiences of minorities where society positions us as the problem; to be positioned under judgement, to be seen as an issue, a supposed dirty mark on society clean laundry. We are not seen as whole people but rather an issue that needs to be solved, something we have seen occur to Black communities, Indigenous communities, Asian communities, and what we see with Latino communities now. Like how Du Bois described, this leads to the hyper-awareness that many carry with them about how they must carry themselves and be in a white-dominated society.

Richard Wright carries on with these concepts about how “we are not what we seem”. Now we are no longer talking about how it is to intrinsically think of oneself as the problem but facing the misrecognition we face. Others can not assume the lived experiences of others, there are layers to the stories of black experiences but society did not recognize that.

Du Bois discusses the internal concerns that society causes while Wright discusses the fault that society has. An interesting conversation for a population that was misunderstood by the white audience. Both authors are dealing with the concept we now refer to as racial identity and the complexities of it.

If I was able to converse with them I would love to talk about the refusal of these imposed identities. And how new identities, I mean anything from religion to aesthetic, adds layers & connections to how we navigate our diverse world. How from the outside context of race I could connect with another with the interest of alt fashion or cottagecore or dark academia.