Mr. Chestnutt, this is W.E.B. Du Bois, and I am writing to tell you that I believe we have much in common and in our beliefs on race, although there are some distinctions when it comes to the place of race and identity. We both can agree that an inequality amongst the races, proliferated by the states exists in this country. You raise the question of what it means to be white, and ultimately I believe your point is to prove that there isn't all that much different between white and black, and that ideally there would be no color line. What you point out about the states is true, that not only are blacks still discriminated against, but so are mulattos and whites that sympathize with the black cause.
All of that said, I think you need to understand that blacks have a different past and a different history, which means a melding of the races is not so easy. Blacks, I believe, need to be enjoined into American society through education. As I write in The Souls of Black Folk "Work, culture, liberty, -- all these we need, not singly but together, not successively but together, each growing and aiding each, and all striving toward that vaster ideal that swims before the Negor people, the ideal of human brotherhood, gained through the unifying ideal of Race; the ideal of fostering and developing the traits and talents of the Negro, not in opposition to or contempt for other races, but rather in large conformity to the greater ideals of the American Republic..." That about sums it up. I think you see a world as possible today that I still believe needs time.
I would love to continue discussing these complex issues with you.
Sincerely,
W.E.B Du Bois
Questions:
1. Sort of a question, but can we talk a little bit more about the history during reconstruction and soon there after because frankly mine is fuzzy?
2. How did blacks identify themselves after being freed after centuries of slavery? How did that correlate to what went on during reconstruction?
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