Du Bois

Question 1

Who was he?

Answer 1

African American social theorist and activist

Question 2

What was Du Bois’ early life?

Answer 2

Raised in Northern US
- Lived in a small town where there wasn’t as much discrimination

Question 3

What was Du Bois’ education?

Answer 3

• Studied at Fisk University
• Studied at Harvard (First Black PhD student)
• University of Berlin

Question 4

What was Du Bois’ PhD topic?

Answer 4

The African slave trade

Question 5

When Du Bois went to the University of Berlin, who did he meet? Through this interaction what did he realize?

Answer 5

• Met Max Weber
• became aware that the best way to study the slave trade was through sociology

Question 6

What was Du Bois’ scholarly career?

Answer 6

• Was rejected at teaching in Northern states
• Worked at a University for Black students (Wilberforce University)
• University of Pennsylvania (faced a lot of racism by other White staff) (did research on Black people in Phili)
• Taught sociology at the University of Atlanda

Question 7

What was Du Bois’ contribution to political activism?

Answer 7

Helped form the NAACP

Question 8

What did he create within the NAACP?

Answer 8

The Crisis, the NAACP’s magazine

Question 9

What happened with his political affiliation?

Answer 9

• Lost faith in capitalism and became interested in socialism and communism
• Made trips to the Soviet Union and joined the communist party in the US
• Moved to Ghana to evade government charges for being a communist

Question 10

What was significant about the day he died?

Answer 10

Died on August 27th, one day before Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech.

Question 11

Why was he largely ignored during his time by mainstream sociology?

Answer 11

1. he was black
2. Never presented his ideas in conventional terms

Question 12

What was his shift in political position?

Answer 12

1. Liberal reformist position
   - The problem of racial inequality could be solved by changing social aspects of society
2. Radical leftist position
   - Thought that the problem of racial inequality could only be solved by restructuring society; more specifically a revolution to overthrow capitalism

Question 13

What was Du Bois’ approach to sociology?

Answer 13

• Not conventional
• Never presented an overarching theoretical perspective
• Never presented theoretical ideas in abstract and formal terms

Question 14

What were the research methods used in his book “The Philadelphia Negro”?

Answer 14

§ Involved interviewing Black people in approx. 2500 households
§ Based on induction

Question 15

What was his research goals in his study?

Answer 15

§ Gather data to challenge some existing theoretical ideas
§ Interested in challenging ideas from White historians and social theorists

Question 16

What were the perspectives of Black people by White historians and social theorists?

Answer 16

· They suggested that something was wrong with Black people
· Supposedly Black people had innate inferiority and ability to advance
· Therefore, Black people were often associated with negative social conditions, such as being unemployed, being poor, and committing crime.

Question 17

What did Du Bois discover about historical developments of African Americans?

Answer 17

· Found historical evidence that Black people in Philadelphia had steadily improved their lives after emancipation in the 1700s
· Started churches, schools, small businesses, and entered the trades and professions
· This countered the idea that Black people were somehow innate to have the inability to advance

Question 18

What did Du Bois theorize about class positions within Black people (grades)

Answer 18

· Grade 1: respectable families earning enough income to live well
· Grade 2: Respectable working-class people with steady-paying work
· Grade 3: poor and very poor without enough steady income
· Grade 4: The “lowest class of criminals, prostitutes, and loafers

Question 19

What did Du Bois believe was the reason for Black people being in Grades 3 and 4?

Answer 19

i) The legacy of slavery
ii) Competition for jobs
iii) Racial discrimination - most important to Du Bois

Question 20

How did the legacy of slavery contribute to grades 3 and 4?

Answer 20

Black people who immigrated from the south to the north had a more recent experience of slavery which limited their job opportunities
· Their former treatment as slaved didn’t prepare them for the industrialized north.

Question 21

How did racial discrimination contribute to grades 3 and 4?

Answer 21

· The unemployment, poverty, and crime associated with Black people resulted in racial discrimination
· Du Bois said that racial discrimination is causing these things instead

Question 22

How did the competition for jobs contribute to grades 3 and 4?

Answer 22

· Between Black people and White immigrants
o People preferred White immigrants
· Restricted to jobs that are very similar to jobs that are similar to slavery

Question 23

How did Du Bois believe that social change would occur?

Answer 23

• Called for White people to recognize how their mistreatment of Black people have led to all the social problems
• Called for Black people to protest against prejudice and mistreatment
  § Devote greater efforts to bettering themselves and doing more to educate their children

Question 24

What were Du Bois’ 3 major works?

Answer 24

1. Darkwater: Voices from within the Veil
2. Dusk of Dawn: A Race Concept
   3/. The Souls of Black Folk

Question 25

What was Du Bois’ 3 major concepts?

Answer 25

1. The colour-line
2. The veil
3. Double Consciousness

Question 26

Describe Du Bois’ concept of the colour-line

Answer 26

• The role of race and racism in history and society
• Thought of the colour-line as describing the forks between Black and White Americans in the south

Question 27

Describe Du Bois’ concept of the veil

Answer 27

• Clear separation or barrier between Black and White people
• Thin material in which they can see each other
• Can be lifted to some degree
• Was sometimes impossible to see through (during slavery)

Question 28

Describe Du Bois’ concept of double-consciousness

Answer 28

Consciousness of being both Black and American while also being judged by the dominant White culture of the United States
- 2 souls: being Black and being American

Question 29

Where does Du Bois theorize that double-consciousness emerged?

Answer 29

Emerges in a social context where subjugated people and their lived experiences are invisible to dominant social patterns

Question 30

What do contemporary theorists argue about his concept of double-consciousness?

Answer 30

Some argue that his concept of double-consciousness very usefully captures the impact of macro sociological and structural processes, more specifically social inequality and racism on the micro sociological context which is that of self-consciousness.

Question 31

What does “The Talented Truth” mean?

Answer 31

The small group of people at the top that were the leaders of the Black communityW

Question 32

What is a benevolent despot? What did he theorize?

Answer 32

Benevolent despot is an enlightenment thinker that Du Bois hoped would deal with the lack of training of African Americans and the discrimination practiced against them
- No benevolent despot to be seen so he put the responsibility on Black people to spark change

Question 33

What are contemporary applications of Du Bois’ work?

Answer 33

• His pholosophical understanding of race and the race problem
• Concept of the double-consciousness

Question 34

What issues did he identify within the global exploitation of Black people?

Answer 34

• Colonialism
• Britain and France had colonies in Africa and gianed wealth by exploiting the raw materials of their African colonies and the labour of Black people in these colonies

Question 35

What issues did DB identify of class interests and race relations?

Answer 35

• DB pointed to conflicts within the working class (on top of the conflicts between WC and capitalists) as were were tensions between Black workers and White workers that made it difficult to join together
• Working class White people were more inclined to align with the perspectives of teh White people who made up the capitalist class compared to the working class Black people which they had a lot in common with

Question 36

In terms of attention and amount of time accorded to the strive towards economic success, what did DB identify as the difference between White and Black Americans?

Answer 36

• Thought that there were more important, “higher,” things in life that had been lost in sight of my White Americans
• African Americans had not yet accorded as much importance to material success, DB hoped that they would never attach too much importance, like White Americans.