In the beginning of your essay "The Souls of Black Folk" you decry that the "the shadow of deep disappointment rests upon the Negro people." Earlier you mention that you believe the fundamental conflict within African-Americans is the split between "his two-ness - An American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body."
While I appreciate your efforts to document and describe the plight of those of African descent in America, I believe you narrow your focus far too broadly. Specifically, I think you completely ignore the issues felt by the mulatto. Mixed-race people face an entirely new set of problems on top of the problems facing the genuine Negro. How do you decide whether a person is black or white? It is certainly absurd to classify a man fifteenth-sixteenths white as a black man. But what about a man 14/16ths? What about 13/16ths? 11, 9, 5, 3, 1/16th? Where do we draw the line? Do we decide by reputations, by reception into society, by what? The officials laws vary greatly between states.
Before the Civil War the color line was regulated strictly in theory. But now, since enfranchisement the black group has been split numerous times. Mr. DuBois you forget about these many negros that have to contend not only with black identity and American identity, but also with white identity. What do they do? Since the mixed race population is not insignificant by any means, I think it is of the utmost importance that you deal with this group of people.
Sincerely,
Charles Chestnutt
Questions:
1) How do you actually identify a black person from a white person? Can you "tell" other than by skin tone?
2) Is Pudd'nhead Wilson's fingerprint method a parody of identity? Or is it trying to promote the idea that you can 'fingermark' black versus white?
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