Dum Vivimus, Vivamus.

According to DuBois, the Negro Problem confuses the soul and confounds the mind. The Negro Problem forces an African-American to choose between the two parts of his personality, the American self and the African self. A man’s American self wants to stay in the South, the land of his birth and family and all that he’s ever known, while the African side yearns for the North, a place where a form of freedom can be found. One cannot divide the soul in such a manner, and so the Negro Problem leads to “a painful self-consciousness, an almost morbid sense of personality, and a moral hesitancy which is fatal to self-confidence.” One becomes split and separate, the blood of two races quarreling for dominance as they barrel through veins and arteries.

The Negro Problem has an entirely negative effect on the soul. It leads to a divide within the psyche, a parting of the American and the African. To refrain from “standing dumb and motionless before the whirlwind,” one must find a way to soothe this fault. This process of bridging is what can ruin a man. Most cannot do it. It takes strength of character to realize the existence of two personas, and it takes extreme amounts of mental fortitude to blend the personas into a true version of one’s self. It can break a person to acknowledge that they have not always been honest with themselves, that two halves exist. One’s self-confidence can take a hit from this and fail to recover. The Negro Problem “can produce a peculiar wrenching of the soul, a peculiar sense of doubt and bewilderment.”