I think that DuBois' idea of the "contradiction of double
aims" is vitally important to the argument he wishes to advance. On one hand, DuBois
makes it clear that people of color have embedded into their understanding the desire to
escape "White contempt." In this mode, the primary motivation is to do what is asked
and to not engage in any sort of dissent that would strive for greater power. It is in
this mode that DuBois argues African- Americans did not advocate for stronger learning,
greater political empowerment, or a sense of autonomy over their identity. Rather, they
sought to do what was asked out of them, which enabled them to take to positions in
society that lacked any real sense of power or economic
control:
to
plough and nail and dig for a poverty-stricken horde—could only result in making him a
poor craftsman, for he had but half a heart in either
cause.
The aspiration,
perhaps the curse, of a "contradiction of double aims" has profound impact on how the
supposed strength of African- Americans turned out to be a weakness. The perceived
strength of compliance and embrace of adhering to normative conduct ended up
disempowering people of color, making them a force easy to subjugate and creating an
established underclass of people that lacked any substantive notions of power and
economic control over their own lives. It is in this where a strength of social
assimilation quickly became into weakness from DuBois'
perspective.
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