WEB Du Bois and Art

WEB Du Bois wasn't an idealist. He lived his life fighting for equal rights for African Americans, but, from the very beginning, he knew the fight would be long and hard. He knew that even after the African Americans achieved their equal civil rights that life wouldn't be all rainbows and sunshine, that they would still have to deal with "the inevitable suffering that always comes with life" (p. 871). I like this about Du Bois; idealism always has its costs to a person's morale... idealism is having reality up on a high pedestal.

Because Du Bois was so dedicated to his cause and because he knew that the journey was going to be very strenuous, he wanted to make sure that nothing was pointless. "[A]ll art is propaganda," he says, "and ever must be, despite the wailing of the purists. I stand in utter shamelessness and say that whatever art I have for writing has been used always for propaganda for gaining the right of black folk to love and enjoy. I do not care a damn for any art that is not used for propaganda. But I do care when propaganda is confined to one side while the other is stripped and silent."

Du Bois was an early member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), but later became disillusioned with the NAACP's motives as well as with American society in general. He was very opposed to Booker T. Washington's pacifistic attitude (as seen in Washington's Atlanta Compromise Address in which he was willing to sacrifice equality for economic opportunity) and was a strong voice in the Civil Rights Movement. Du Bois was certainly not willing to make any compromises in this battle for equality, and he was willing to take big strides in order to reach the goal.

Du Bois's history and his ardent feelings about African American rights explain in no uncertain terms why he "doesn't give a damn" about art that doesn't serve a purpose other than being aesthetically pleasing. To Du Bois, art that doesn't serve any constructive purpose is wasted... it's stupid for an African American to paint pictures if the pictures don't say something. As my favorite dead guy, F. Scott Fitzgerald, once said, "You don't write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say."