Most blacks automatically put on a mask around whites, a veil that hid the “dead-weight of social degradation” that scholar W. E. B. Du Bois gave voice to so eloquently in The Souls of Black Folk. The mask offered protection against the constant reminders of being at once American, and the American dilemma. It obscured the anger that blacks knew could have life-changing—even life-ending—consequences if displayed openly.
