"Between me and the other world there is ever an unasked question: unasked by some through feelings of delicacy; by others through the difficulty of rightly framing it. All, nevertheless, flutter around it. They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then, instead of saying directly, How does it feel to be a problem? they say, I know an excellent colored man in my town; or, I fought at
Mechanicsville; or, Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil? At these I smile, or am interested, or reduce the boiling to a simmer, as the occasion may require. To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word."
Who wrote the passage above?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

W. E. B. DuBois wrote the passage excerpted above. It is the opening passage of his legendary 1903 tome The Souls of Black Folks, in which DuBois memorably posed the question, "How does it feel to be a problem?" The question has been invoked in the years since in reference to the discriminatory experience racial minorities have had in America.

"Between Me and the Other World There Is Ever an Unasked