Impact Of Du Dubois On African Americans

Du Bois considered African Americans to be the bearers of a world-historical mission to

Black social, political, and economic solidarity where essential to the achieving racial justice. However, this vision is not necessarily consonant with American democratic and liberal ideals.

Moreover, the relevance of history in conservation goes further. As the historical category of the African race that Du Bois relies on to re-construct the destiny of African Americans, is very unspecific and broad, it can be molded to fit the imperatives that deems necessary to include. In addition, as he has already mentioned the traits and values African American share with the rest of America, he ads the traits that in his opinion typify and thus stand for blacks’

African heritage. In this regard, he develops a typification that though not exactly free from Victorian racial uplift ideals, is affirmative and stands in contrast to the negative typification that whites constructed to justify slavery and the post-Reconstruction subjugation of blacks. In creating a clear mission, and one of world-historical importance for that, which he further connects to the specific gift African Americans have to offer to the world, he provides a plan for life that works as corrective to the already internalized notions of race. As Du Bois committed himself early on to the struggle for black liberation, he accordingly created a typification tailored around this mission. We can further assume that the mission should function as the ideal, a unifying force that connects the different classes of the “race” from North to South. Here is where Du Bois’s emphasis on the importance of independent black institutions comes in. In order to ensure that the positive conception of the race and its mission in the world are passed on to the next generation, African Americans need to ensure that consecutive generation learn about African history and culture. Correcting the negative messages that white constructions of the “Negro race” convey is therefore key and as such Du Bois reminds African Americans that keeping the institutions of primary and secondary education firmly under black control is key to achieving this goal. The same is true for his considerations

The question remains when Du Bois considers it safe to let the “race” make its own decision. In both the COR and the WNW his recommendations tend to be strongly prescriptive, even in the realm of the “mission,” which he couches it in socialist terminology.