Podcast 4: Conversations with Rev. James Henry Harris: Black Suffering: "W.E.B. Du Bois and Black Consciousness"
Reverend Dr. James Henry Harris is Distinguished Professor of Homiletics and Pastoral Theology and a research scholar in religion and humanities at the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology, Virginia Union University. He also serves as chair of the theology faculty and pastor of Second Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia. He is a former president of the Academy of Homiletics and recipient of the Henry Luce Fellowship in Theology.
He is the author of numerous books, including Beyond the Tyranny of the Text and Black Suffering: Silent Pain, Hidden Hope (Fortress Press, 2020). His latest book is N: My Encounter with Racism and the Forbidden Word in an American Classic, a memoir that describes and critically wonders about a graduate English class he took on Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, and provides crucial insight into the CRT conundrum. Harris and I agreed to hold regular conversations about the nature of Black Suffering.
Here is my fourth of those discussions recorded on Tuesday August 23, 2022. This discussion focuses on WEB Du Bois.
#####
Subjects Covered
1. Your Baldwin quote from The Fire Next Time that opens the chapter -- no language to describe. (3:45):
The brutality with which Negroes are treated in this country simply cannot be overstated. . . . For the horrors of the American Negro's life there has been almost no language. "James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
2. The two-pronged self-consciousness, which America imposes with denigrating interest on the Black Other, who is hidden behind the "veil." (6:09)
3. The "veil" --- compare to Maya. (28:13)
4. Fanon says Blacks love whites, but whites struggle to be human. In Du Bois you note:
"Like chattel slavery, this projected consciousness is a form of enslavement that leaves the Negro longing for Freedom. Freedom to be human. No matter its outer hue, the human soul desires expression as evidence of having meaning and purpose." (33:11)
5. Du Bois writes that slaver's saw Black as "a revenue-generating asset for the slave master with no other major purpose. Like a farm machine or an animal. Like a plow, a horse, or a mule. A commodity." ( 40.48) This is reminiscent of a scene from the Mel Brooks classic comedy classic film, Blazing Saddles:
6. James reads a poem. "Refugee in America" (45:20):
By Langston Hughes
.
.
...........................
