In “The Conservation of Races,” an essay written for the American Negro Academy in 1897, W.E.B. Du Bois defines race to be:
“a vast family of human beings, generally of common blood and language, always of common history, traditions and impulses, who are both voluntarily and involuntarily striving together for the accomplishment of certain more or less vividly conceived ideals of life.[1]”
This definition is vastly different from other definitions of the time. In the late nineteenth century, the emphasis was on the biological element of a racial construction. While Du Bois didn’t completely disregard this, he moved away from a purely Eurocentric way of thinking towards a synthesis of African, Asian and European thought to create his own unique epistemology.
The initial development of this epistemology can be traced through “The Conservation of Races.” In paragraph three, Du Bois insists that scholars should “seriously consider … what is the real meaning of race,[2]” which suggests nothing has been proposed which can be considered a serious conclusive answer.
In the decades prior to 1897, an understanding of race had developed in conjunction with social Darwinism which emphasised the physical. Du Bois was just one of a number of men trying to get beyond this, but the great shift of emphasis from biology to social process as an explanation for cultural differences was a gradual one:[3] this was especially true in the United States, where the idea that the Negroes might be a separate species made a more determined last stand[4]. For his part, Du Bois suggests that the work of Thomas Henry Huxley and Raetzel “is nothing more than an acknowledgment that … the differences between men do not explain all the differences of their history.[5]” Not only did Du Bois (rightly) assume Huxley’s classifications to be overly broad and incomplete[6], he also went on to demonstrate that there was more to races than just the physical.
Du Bois’s searches for a more complex understanding of racial constructions led him away from a European way of thinking, and thus away from the natural sciences. In paragraph nine of “The Conservation of Races,” he states that “the deeper differences are spiritual, psychical, differences – undoubtedly based on the physical, but infinitely transcending them.[7]” Monteiro (2000) interprets Du Bois as understanding “physical and biological race to be … of little scientific significance.[8]” I would not entirely agree. Du Bois uses the work of the biologists of his generation to inform his own beliefs that being of a race is something all men should be proud of. This unquestionably leads men of the Negro race (Du Bois’s linguistic classification) back to the spiritual homeland of Africa. The consequence of this is the liberation of the study of races from white supremacy[9] and from European thought.
Monteiro is correct when he notes that “[Du Bois] failed to see early on in his career … that, rather than science, this research program was ideologically driven.[10]” Du Bois had a point to prove to the white supremacists of his era, and he was only too willing to stress that the American Negro had, like all races, something special and unique to contribute to humanity.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the essay “Of Our Spiritual Strivings,” which forms the opening chapter of Souls of Black Folk. The title itself is worthy of comment. The “our” not only personalizes the strivings, but draws together all the people of the Negro race and gives them a collective identity. This is an identity which does not stereotype everybody as the same, but gives them a set of morals and emotions, as well as a collective history, which sets them apart from the other races of the world.
The utopianism of this collectiveness is tainted by Du Bois’s notion of the veil, which shut out the African American from the white world. Du Bois’s own unwillingness to tear down the veil or peak through it emphasises the unity amongst the people of his race he was hopeful of spreading. Nevertheless, his own observation that he “lived above [the veil] in a region of blue sky and great wandering shadows[11]” allowed him to pass comment on the white world, for which he had no desire to enter. It was there that:
“He was able to see the symbiotic relationship between white and black in America, and he strove to enlighten his white audience as to the specific psychological and economic tensions and bonds that affected both races.[12]” [Brodwin, p 306]
Whilst he did not want to tear down the veil, Du Bois also stressed that for the good of humanity, the end of black striving would only occur once the African American was a “co-worker in the kingdom of culture.[13]” At first, the two desires might seem incompatible with each other, but in fact they marry up very well. The only true way for African Americans to become effective and meaningful workers in any “kingdom of culture” would be to look deep into their souls and into their history and embrace what has been there from the very start: Africa. This self-observation which Du Bois so strongly advocates for his people was critical throughout his writing career. As Brodwin notes, “this passive transcendence [of the veil] enabled Du Bois to reflect upon his own inner life and that of his race.[14]”
In 1897’s “The Conservation of Races” Du Bois states:
“No Negro who has given earnest thought to the situation of his people in America has failed, at some time in life, to find himself at these cross-roads; has failed to ask himself at some time: What, after all, am I? Am I an American or am I a Negro? Can I be both?[15]”
Within the souls of black men lies Africa. And in Africa lies the great contribution of the Negro race to world civilisation and to world culture. One of the main reasons Africa itself is so special is because it is not Europe. For centuries beforehand, European history was taken as world history. The only role Africa ever seemed to play in “world” history was when it was colonised by the white men of Europe. Du Bois touched upon this in 1920. Of Sir Henry M. Stanley, he wrote: “Down the dark forests of inmost Africa sailed this modern Sir Galahad, in the name of "the noble-minded men of several nations," to introduce commerce and civilization.[16]” Now, however, the Negro was (legally) free in America and in his blood he had a different history to tell the world. But in order for him to enlighten the world, he first had to discover it himself.
The particular question above of exactly what the African American is in the United States grew into Du Bois’s most famous concept, namely double consciousness.
In the early twentieth century, Du Bois constantly used the idea of double consciousness to characterise issues of race. While this use was provocative and unanticipated[17], it was only made possible by a self-understanding of racial identity. In the opening chapter of Souls, Du Bois talks of “two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body,[18]” which create a unique tension in the souls of men of the Negro race.
The first consciousness, of being an American, is the most tangible and the most accessible to African Americans. The second consciousness is less so. The elements which represent the American consciousness of the African American are physical in nature. Africa is represented by the psychical components of the second consciousness, as illustrated in figure 1:
American
Birth
Citizenship
Political ideals
Language
Religion
---------------------------------------------
Being Of The Negro Race
History
Culture
Cultural ideals
African Spirituality
* Figure 1 The Consciences of the African American
The above diagram locates the representative concepts of the second consciousness directly below those of the immediate consciousness. This is not to make the American consciousness of greater importance: the different nature of the two allows both consciousnesses to be active at the same time. Over the years, the element of religion has passed from one consciousness to the other, but today a larger number of African Americans once more practice Christianity than any other religion.
While Du Bois was uncritical of the white religion in “The Conservation of Races” (he merely commented religion to be an ‘Americanism’ of the Negro race), he had developed a strong outspoken opinion of it by 1920. As Zuckerman has commented: “Du Bois's religious identity developed from that of a faithful Christian to a sceptical agnostic.[19]” In “The Souls of White Folk,” Du Bois lambastes “the utter failure of white religion”. What irritates him the most is the impact of Christianity upon Africa: “… the extraordinary self-deception of white religion is epitomized: solemnly the white world sends five million dollars worth of missionary propaganda to Africa each year.[20]” Here, the boundary between the two consciousnesses of the black man in America becomes blurred. The white religion is, in the eyes of Du Bois at least, slipping into Africa where it does not belong and whitening the second consciousness.
The core of what Du Bois wrote in 1897 and 1903 remained true in 1920, when he published “The Souls of White Folk” as the third chapter of Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil. He still believed that the Negro race should not crave whiteness, asking rhetorically as he does “what on Earth is whiteness that one should so desire it?[21]”
In many respects, Du Bois develops his ideas to another level, and finds new ways of expressing them. He asserts early on in the essay that he considers whiteness to be ownership of the universe. And with that ownership, comes the manipulation of the universe’s history, so that children are taught that everything great in the world is white. In paragraph six of “The Conservation of Races,” Du Bois states that “the history of the world is the history, not of individuals … but of races.[22]” The underlying theme of “The Souls of White Folk,” then, is the white man’s totalitarianism, and with that comes the extinction from memory of the history of the Negro race. Common history, it may be recalled, was a distinguishing feature of Du Bois’s definition of what a race is, cited at the beginning of this chapter.
The white advance into Africa, Du Bois fears, is damaging to the black identity. The European theory, he suggests is as follows: “It is the duty of white Europe to divide up the darker world and administer it for Europe's good.[23]” This poses great dangers to the African people who now live in the west: European expansion in to Africa envelopes (and to a certain extent extinguishes) what it is, and what it means, to be of African descent.
If this advance continues, fears Du Bois, then so does the spreading of the white ideology, which he outlines all too clearly:
“Everything great, good, efficient, fair, and honourable is "white"; everything mean, bad, blundering, cheating, and dishonourable is "yellow"; a bad taste is "brown"; and the devil is "black".[24]”
The consequences of such a philosophy are obvious. One of the central concerns Du Bois might have would be the killing off of the culture of Africa. Further on in the essay, he talks of a “silent revolution” in modern European culture in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in which “Africa was dead, India conquered, Japan isolated, and China prostrate.[25]” Du Bois highlights the domination of the white world and white culture outside of Africa. The history of the world, he said, was the history of races and in recent years past this history was again being made in the very same way.
But the black man in America, Du Bois was aware, faced a unique set of circumstances. Never before in modern history had such a large number of people of one race been forced half way around the world against their will to work as slaves for four hundred years. They could not align their struggle with people of other races. Du Bois was writing in the immediate years following the Emancipation Proclamation, while memories of the Civil War were still vivid in the minds of Americans. He urged unity amongst people ‘of the Negro race’, at a time when they were facing blatant disfranchisement.
African Americans could be unified by the (physical) colour of their skin, but for it to mean something they would have to go through a process of self-observation. Double consciousness is only made possible by an understanding of racial identity through the self. In “The Souls of White Folk” Du Bois states that “a belief in humanity is a belief in coloured men.[26]” To believe in humanity is to believe that persons of Du Bois’s race have something to offer civilisation which cannot be gained from any other race in the world.
Bibliography
Brodwin, Stanley. “The Veil Transcended: Form and Meaning in W.E.B. Du Bois’ ‘The Souls of Black Folk’.” Journal of Black Studies. 2:3. (March 1972): p 303 – 321.
Bruce, Dickinson D. Jr. “W.E.B. Du Bois and the Idea of Double Consciousness.” American Literature. 64:2. (June 1992): p 299 – 309.
Du Bois, W.E.B. Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil. 1920.
Du Bois, W.E.B. Souls of Black Folk. New York: Dover. [1903] 1994.
Du Bois, W.E.B. “The Conservation of Races.” 1897.
Monteiro, Anthony. “Being an African in the World: The Du Boisian Epistemology.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 568. (March 2000): p 220 – 234.
Zuberi, Tukufu. “Introduction: The Study of African American Problems.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 568. (March 2000): p 09 – 12.
Zuckerman, Phil. “The Sociology of Religion of W.E.B. Du Bois.” Sociology of Religion. 63:2. (Summer 2002): p 239 – 253.
Notes
[1] Du Bois, W.E.B. “The Conservation of Races.” 1897. p 32.
[2] Ibid. p 21.
[3] Gossett, Thomas F. Race: The History of an Idea in America, New Edition. p 416
[4] Ibid., p 58
[5] Du Bois, W.E.B. “The Conservation of Races.” 1897. p 32.
[6] Scientists today are aware that the diversity of man in Africa alone is greater than the diversity of Mankind in the rest of the world put together. For a list of other nineteenth century anthropologists and their respective numering of human races, see Gossett, Thomas F. Race: The History of an Idea in America, New Edition. p 82
[7] Du Bois, W.E.B. “The Conservation of Races.” 1897. p 33.
[8] Monteiro, Anthony. “Being an African in the World: The Du Boisian Epistemology.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 568. (March 2000): p 221.
[9] This is an observation also made by Monteiro, p 221.
[10] Monteiro, Anthony. “Being an African in the World: The Du Boisian Epistemology.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 568. (March 2000): p 225.
[11] Du Bois, W.E.B. Souls of Black Folk. [1903] 1994, p 2.
[12] Brodwin, Stanley. “The Veil Transcended: Form and Meaning in W.E.B. Du Bois’ “Souls of Black Folk”.” Journal of Black Studies. 2:3. (March 1972): p 306.
[13] Du Bois, W.E.B. Souls of Black Folk. [1903] 1994, p 3.
[14] Brodwin, Stanley. “The Veil Transcended: Form and Meaning in W.E.B. Du Bois’ “Souls of Black Folk”.” Journal of Black Studies. 2:3. (March 1972): p 307.
[15] Du Bois, W.E.B. “The Conservation of Races.” 1897. p 35.
[16] Du Bois, W.E.B. Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil. 1920.
[17] Bruce, Dickinson D. Jr. “W.E.B. Du Bois and the Idea of Double Consciousness.” American Literature. 64:2. (June 1992): p 300
[18] Du Bois, W.E.B. Souls of Black Folk. [1903] 1994, p 2
[19] Zuckerman, Phil. “The Sociology of Religion of W.E.B. Du Bois.” Sociology of Religion. 63:2. (Summer 2002): p 241
[20] Du Bois, W.E.B. “The Souls of White Folk.” Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil. 1920.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Du Bois, W.E.B. “The Conservation of Races.” 1897. p 32.
[23] Du Bois, W.E.B. “The Souls of White Folk.” Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil. 1920.
[24] Ibid.
[25] Ibid.
[26] Du Bois, W.E.B. “The Souls of White Folk.” Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil. 1920.
No comments:
Post a Comment