Fa 387 Response Paper: Dubois & Minstrelsy

FA 387 Response Paper: DuBois & MinstrelsyThe title of Du Bois 1903 work, “The Souls of Black Folk” is a response to the minstrel, because it responds to one of the stereotypes white Americans had concerning black people. Many white Americans believed that black people did not have souls, thus, inflicting them with torturous pains. They transformed the woes of the black people into a form of entertainment, mockingly. The stereotype of using terror to move the black person into action was the worst kind of mistreatment that the white Americans did ignoring the fact that black people too were human beings and deserved human dignity (Herring 1).The minstrel is related to Du Bois’ notion of the mask worn by African-Americans as well, as, veil because the Minstrel used the black man’s way of life and transformed it into comedy and art. The minstrel used black culture to make money, while the African-Americans believed that by white Americans playing the role of black people. They helped to popularize the black culture in the real sense; the white-Americans misrepresented the black culture by using stereotypes instead of reality (Herring 5). African-Americans, despite knowing that the minstrel mocked their being black people,