White Space

W. E. B. Du Bois is one of the largest black advocate that America had ever seen, divulging into various markets such as media, literature and activism he enabled certain prominent topics to take the spotlight in his given time. Through the creation of graphic statistical pieces of work, he was able to show the society what exactly the repercussions of his central thesis is which is the “Colour Line” 

“The Education of Black People” This new title encompassed a wider range in Du Bois’s philosophy over time.  It enhanced and strengthened the surety of his convictions; founded on built in systemic, scientific and sociological research for over half a century. Du Bois was a traditional race man. He did not believe that the dark skinned race could study the same curriculum as schools where the core belief was that of the oppressor.  Where the prescribed doctrine, based on race, held that Black people were incapable of intellectual rigour, or that they lacked the capacity to engage and challenge the brain.

Du Bois’s biological concept of race attempts to categorise groups of people based on various physical commonalities. Traditionally, assumptions about mental, cognitive, and psychological capacity were made by way of the concept of biological race. The socio-historical concept of race accounts for a shared group experience and cumulative social and historical conditions. He goes on to speak about the existence of eight distinct races based upon primarily physiological differences. Du Bois does not seem to support the suggested inferiority of non-white people. He contends, however, that physical dissimilarities between groups of human beings must be accounted for in the definition of race. The physiological dissimilarities that Du Bois primarily references are “blood, colour, and cranial measurements”

He goes on to say that, “The deeper differences are spiritual, psychical, differences – undoubtedly based on the physical, but infinitely transcending them”. Thus, Du Bois’ theory of race in 1897 depends, in part, upon the inclusion of biological conception. Yet, he asserts that physical traits are not the most significant qualifiers of race. Du Bois explains that the primary qualifiers of race involve “a common history, common laws and religion, similar habits of thought and a conscious striving together for certain ideals of life”

Personally I think of the different ways that Du Bois affected the perspective of the blacks was at a foundational level. One of the themes of African American history is that there has always been a disparity of opinion about how to address personal and institutional racism in majority culture. Think about Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, should African Americans fight in either of the World Wars if they are not entitled to civil rights in the United States? The approach varies of being accepted in the society or segregating to create your own. 

“One thing, however, seldom occurs: the best of the whites and the best of the Negroes almost never live in anything like close proximity. It thus happens that in nearly every Southern town and city, both whites and blacks see commonly the worst of each other.” (Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk, p. 126). This statement speaks lengths in explaining what Du Bois’s psychology was built on, the colour line is a manner of defining the hierarchical difference between the two races but also the segregation of them. This ideology differs is because it breeds the aspect of race central communities without coherence.

“One ever feels his twoness, -- an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.”  ― W.E.B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folk. The segregation allows for the two identities to never completely submerge, as described by Du Bois’s in the concept of double conciseness. The identity of an African American man or women is only of the either and not an amalgamation of both. The identity slips between the two allowing for two consciousness to appear which feels like a state of double consciousness.  

“the worst of each other” this is a statement which I feel comes out of an array of personal experiences but I can also see it leaning towards being completely true. This ideology does state how Du Bois’s didn’t lean towards a sense of congregation but more towards individuality, this a string statement to make. While hearing it from my perspective it feels like the environment was so burdened by white supremacy that Du Bois’s was conditioned to think that a community could not involve the two races, his nature was to create solely for the education of black folk whilst not trying to incur a sense belonging between the races.  

I do not have enough relation to the sentiment to decide whether to agree or disagree, but I do believe that at the purest of form; the only way you can build a society that doesn’t breed an aspect of segregation is to work towards a community. In order to build a community we have to learn about global culture in a form of communication and have the acceptance of what is presented in front of you. The societal working of continent has to be found in coherence between communities at least in the current century, due to the advancements of communication which makes us all accessible to each other. 

“The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the colour-line.” Du Bois meant that both literally and figuratively. He goes on to describe the colour line as “the question of how far differences of race . . . will hereafter be made the basis of denying to over half the world the right of sharing to their utmost ability the opportunities and privileges of modern civilisation.” Du Bois was an early forecaster of how the relationship between race, nation, and empire would drive major conflicts like anti-colonial struggle and racial integration. A consistent, yet commonly overlooked, black radical politics has been the demand not simply to be included in the nation but to evolve its meaning by contesting capitalism and empire. The logic of capitalism and Western empire continued to brutalise black bodies in ever-evolving systems of exclusion and exploitation. 

Du Bois’s metaphor of the veil of race “reveals that physical traits are unimportant until they are tied to a specific meaning and until they become the motive of symbolic action” (206). It can presumably be a clear link to the historical past of the black people, such as slavery, disfranchisement, and an inferior position in American society. Du Bois enumerates all these reasons in the Souls of Black Folk more precisely. “War, murder, slavery, extermination and debauchery…, other world to be told complacently that all this has been right and proper, the fated triumph of strength over weakness, off righteousness over evil, of superiors over inferiors” — Du Bois. In other words, not physical but rather psychical and spiritual differences are important for the definition of race. Du Bois meaning of race is a social construction. 

Du Bois’s theory of the veil suggests the division of the American nation in two ethnic groups on the basis of social beliefs. He highlights how the veil separates whites and blacks in everyday life, any set of experiences that contrasts one’s personal potential and society’s racist oppression can highlight the veil’s presence. This inequality is perpetuated by a system rigged to favour the wealthiest and whitest communities. 

Elijah Anderson is the Sterling Professor of Sociology and of African American Studies at Yale University. He is one of the leading urban ethnographers in the United States. He talks about the concept White Space. The civil rights movement, a “racial incorporation” process of the 1970s and 1980s was established, and along with “fair housing”, school integration, and “affirmative action, it benefited many black people . Many of these people have joined the larger American middle class, and they and their children have become increasingly assimilated. But this assimilation is essentially into what they know and perceive as white space, which they often navigate haltingly, and essentially alone. In navigating these white spaces, they may feel themselves to be tokens, as symbolic representatives of the urban black ghetto. When encountering a white person in this setting, they tend to assume that person is likely to be racially insensitive, if not openly prejudiced, and before giving the person full trust, they hesitate. Because of these challenges, many black people are suspicious of white spaces and hesitate to invest in relationships with white people they find there. Finding such relations too problematic, they tend to disengage with white people both in public and in private, keeping such relations somewhat superficial. 

The reason the concept of white spaces and the ideology that Du Bois emphasis have that sense of similarity is due to the fact that both of them reach towards a sense alienation towards the other race, both of them allow for their individualistic concern. The relationship between races have been designed in such a way that the perception that Du Bois dealt with at the time is still being portrayed by Anderson but in a different scenario. Highlighting the hostility between each other in a white space both by the whites and the blacks was felt in the US at a constant state during Du Bois’s time. I do see this as a continuation but the method of fixing this situation is to create healthier spaces that allow for the congregation of the two communities or per se various communities. Overall, I would say that the method of approach that Du Bois leads is a way to regain respect and equality, but with the loss of community. Personally i would lean towards a more global approach of acceptance towards the various groups of people that have emerged.