Abstract
This article utilizes W.E.B. Du Bois’s often-overlooked classic essay “The Souls of White Folk” to develop a long overdue dialogue between Africana studies and critical white studies. It demonstrates the dialectical nature of Du Bois’s philosophy of race and critical race theory by comparing and contrasting his groundbreaking critiques of racism in The Souls of Black Folk with his reconstructed and decidedly more radical critique of the political economy of race, racism, whiteness, and white supremacy in “The Souls of White Folk.” The conception and critique of white supremacy that the author develops in this article does not seek to sidestep socio-legal race discourse as much as it intends to supplement it with the work of Du Bois et al. in philosophy of race, sociology of race, radical politics, and critical social theory. One of the main reasons this supplemental approach to critical white studies and critical race theory is important is because typically legal or law-focused studies of race confine theorists to particular political, social, national, and/or disciplinary discursive arenas, which is extremely problematic considering the fact that white supremacy is an international imperialist or global racist system.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allen, T. W. (1994). The invention of the White race, vol. 1. New York: Verso.
Allen, T. W. (1997). The invention of the White race, vol. 2. New York: Verso.
Berry, M. F. (1994). Black resistance, White law: A history of constitutional racism in America. New York: Allen Lane.
Blight, D. W. (1994). W.E.B. Du Bois and the struggle for American historical memory. In G. Fabre & R. O’Meally (Eds.), History and memory in African American culture (pp. 63–89). New York: Oxford University Press.
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2001). White supremacy and racism in the post-Civil Rights era. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
Cell, J. W. (1982). The highest stage of White supremacy: The origins of segregation in South Africa and the American South. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cox, O. C. (1959). Caste, class, and race: A study in social dynamics. New York: Monthly Review.
Cox, O. C. (1987). In H. M. Hunter & S. Y. Abraham (Eds.), Race, class, and the world system. New York: Monthly Review.
Davis, A. Y. (1981). Women, race and class. New York: Vintage.
Davis, A. Y. (1989). Women, culture, and politics. New York: Vintage.
Delgado, R. (Ed.) (1995). Critical race theory: The cutting edge. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Delgado, R., & Stefancic, J. (Eds.) (1997). Critical White studies: Looking behind the mirror. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Dred Scott vs. Sanford, 60 US. (1857).
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1930a). Africa, its geography, people and products. Girard, Kansas: Haldeman-Julius.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1930b). Africa, its place in modern history. Girard, Kansas: Haldemen-Julius.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1939). Black folk then and now: An essay in the history and sociology of the Negro race. New York: Henry Holt.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1945). Color and democracy: Colonies and peace. New York: Hartcourt Brace.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1961). Africa: An essay toward a history of the continent of Africa and its inhabitants. Moscow: Soviet Institute of African Studies.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1965). The world and Africa: An inquiry into the part which Africa has played in world history. New York: International Publishers.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1968a). The autobiography of W.E.B. Du Bois: A soliloquy on viewing my life from the last decade of its first century. New York: International Publishers.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1968b). Dusk of dawn: An essay toward an autobiography of a race concept. New York: Schocken.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1969). Darkwater: Voices from within the veil. New York: Schocken.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1970a). The gift of black folk: The Negro in the making of America. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1970b). In P. S. Foner (Ed.), W.E.B. Du Bois speaks: Speeches and addresses, 1899–1963, vols. 1–2. New York: Pathfinder.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1970c). In W. Wilson (Ed.), The selected writings of W.E.B. Du Bois. New York: Mentor.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1971a). In J. Lester (Ed.), The seventh son: The thought and writings of W.E.B. Du Bois, vols. 1–2. New York: Vintage.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1971b). In A. Paschal (Ed.), W.E.B. Du Bois: A reader. New York: Collier.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1973). In H. Aptheker (Ed.), The education of Black people: Ten critiques, 1906–1960. New York: Monthly Review.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1978). In D. S. Green & E. D. Driver (Eds.), W.E.B. Du Bois on sociology and the Black community. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1985). In H. Aptheker (Ed.), Against racism: Unpublished essays, papers, addresses, 1887–1961. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1986). In N. I. Huggins (Ed.), Du Bois: Writings. New York: Library of America Press.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1995a). In D. L. Lewis (Ed.), W.E.B. Du Bois reader. New York: Henry Holt.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1995b). Black reconstruction in America, 1860–1880. New York: Touchstone.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1996). In E. Sundquist (Ed.), The Oxford W.E.B. Du Bois reader. New York: Oxford University Press.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (1997). In R. Gooding-Williams & D. W. Blight (Eds.), The souls of Black folk. Boston: Bedford.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (2000). In P. Zuckerman (Ed.), Du Bois on religion. Walnut Creek: Altamira.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (2001). The Negro. Mineola, NY: Dover.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (2002). In E. F. Provenzo Jr. (Ed.), Du Bois on education. Walnut Creek: Altamira.
Du Bois, W. E. B. (2004). In P. Zuckerman (Ed.), The social theory of W.E.B. Du Bois. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Essed, P., & Goldberg, D. T. (Eds.) (2001). Race critical theories: Texts and contexts. Malden: Blackwell.
Fanon, F. (1968). The wretched of the earth. New York: Grove.
Fletcher, D. C. (1973). W.E.B. Du Bois’s arraignment and indictment of White civilization. Black World, 22, 16–23.
Fredrickson, G. (1981). White supremacy: A comparative study in American and South African history. New York: Oxford University Press.
Fredrickson, G. (1987). The Black image in the White mind: The debate on Afro-American character and destiny, 1817–1914. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press.
Genovese, E. D. (1965). The political economy of slavery: Studies in the economy and society of the slave South. New York: Pantheon.
Genovese, E. D. (1969). The world the slaveholders made: Two essays in interpretation. New York: Pantheon.
Genovese, E. D. (1974). Roll, Jordan, roll: The world the slaves made. New York: Vintage.
Genovese, E. D. (1979). From rebellion to revolution: Afro-American slave revolts in the making of the modern world. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
Goldberg, D. T. (1993). Racist culture: Philosophy and the politics of meaning. Cambridge: Blackwell.
Goldberg, D. T. (Ed.) (1994). Multiculturalism: A critical reader. Cambridge: Blackwell.
Goldberg, D. T. (1997). Racial subjects: Writing on race in America. New York: Routledge.
Goldberg, D. T., Musheno, M., & Bower, L. (Eds.) (2001). Between law and culture: Relocating legal studies. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Goldberg, D. T., & Solomos, J. (Eds.) (2002). A companion to racial and ethnic studies. Malden: Blackwell.
Goldberg, D. T., & Quayson, A. (Eds.) (1999). Relocating postcolonialism: A critical reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Gooding-Willliams, R. (1987). Philosophy of history and social critique in The Souls of Black Folk. Social Science Information, 26, 99–114.
Gordon, L. R. (1995). Bad faith and anti-black racism. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press.
Gordon, L. R. (1997). Her majesty’s other children: Sketches of racism from a neocolonial age. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
Gordon, L. R. (1999). A short history of the ‘critical’ in critical race theory. APA Newsletter on Philosophy and the Black Experience, 98(2), 23–26.
Gordon, L. R. (2000a). Existential Africana: Understanding Africana existential thought. New York: Routledge.
Gordon, L. R. (2000b). Du Bois’s humanistic philosophy of human sciences. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 568, 265–280.
Gordon, L. R. (2002). Sartrean bad faith and anti-Black racism. In J. K. Ward & T. L. Lott (Eds.), Philosophers on race: Critical essays (pp. 241–259). Malden: Blackwell.
Gordon, L. R., & Gordon, A. (Eds.) (2005). A companion to African American studies. Malden: Blackwell.
Gregg, R. (1998). Giant steps: W.E.B. Du Bois and the historical enterprise. In M. B. Katz & T. J. Sugrue (Eds.), W.E.B. Du Bois, race, and the city: The Philadelphia Negro and its legacy (pp. 77–100). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Guzman, J. P. (1961). W.E.B. Du Bois—The historian. Journal of Negro Education, 30, 377–385.
Harris, L. (Ed.) (1999). Racism: Key concepts in critical theory. Amherst, NY: Humanity.
Higginbotham, A. L. Jr. (1978). In the matter of color: Race and the American legal process—The colonial period. New York: Oxford University Press.
Higginbotham, A. L. Jr. (1996). Shades of freedom: Racial politics and presumptions of the American legal process. New York: Oxford University Press.
hooks, B. (1981). Ain’t I a woman: Black women and feminism. Boston: South End.
hooks, B. (1984). Feminist theory: From margin to center. Boston: South End.
hooks, B. (1991). Black looks: Race and representation. Boston: South End.
hooks, B. (1995). Killing rage: Ending racism. New York: Henry Holt.
Hornsman, R. (1986). Race and manifest destiny: Origins of American racial Anglo-saxonism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
James, C. L. R. (1963). The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo revolution. New York: Vintage.
James, C. L. R. (1995). A history of pan-African revolt. Chicago: Kerr.
James, C. L. R. (1996). In S. McLemee (Ed.), C.L.R. James on the “negro question.” Jackson: University of Mississippi Press.
James, J. A. (1996). Resisting state violence: Radicalism, gender, and race in U.S. culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
James, J. A. (1997). Transcending the talented tenth: Black leaders and American intellectuals. New York: Routledge.
James, J. A. (Ed.) (1998). The Angela Y. Davis reader. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
James, J. A. (1999). Shadow boxing: Representations of Black feminist politics. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Jordan, W. D. (1977). White over Black: American attitudes toward the Negro, 1550–1812. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
King, D. (1995). Separate and unequal: Black American and the U.S. federal government. Oxford: Clarendon.
Lange, W. J. (1982). W.E.B. Du Bois, Franz Boas and the rise of Anti-racism in American anthropology. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the North Central Sociological Association.
Lash, J. S. (1957). Thought, research, action: Dr. Du Bois and history. Phylon, 18, 184–185.
Liss, J. (1998). Diasporic identities: The science and politics of race in the work of Franz Boas and W.E.B. Du Bois, 1894–1919. Cultural Anthropology, 13(2), 127–166.
Lopez, I. F. H. (1995). The social construction of race. In R. Delgado (Ed.), Critical race theory (pp. 191–203). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Lopez, I. F. H. (1996). White by law: The legal construction of race. New York: New York University Press.
Lorde, A. (1984). Sister outsider: Essays and speeches by Audre Lorde. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press Feminist Series.
Lorde, A. (1988). A burst of light: Essays by Audre Lorde. Ithaca, NY: Firebrand.
Marx, A. W. (1998). Making race and nation: A comparison of the United States, South Africa, and Brazil. New York: Cambridge University Press.
May, S. (Ed.) (1999). Critical multiculturalism: Rethinking multicultural and anti-racist education. London: Falmer.
McLaren, P. (1994). White terror and oppositional agency: Towards a critical multiculturalism. In D. T. Goldberg (Ed.), Multiculturalism: A critical reader (pp. 46–74). Cambridge: Blackwell.
McLaren, P. (1997). Revolutionary multiculturalism: Pedagogies of dissent for the new millennium. Boulder, CO: Westview.
McLaren, P. (1998). Rethinking Whiteness. In J. Kincheloe & S. Steinberg (Eds.), White reign (pp. 63–75). New York: St. Martin’s Press.
McLaren, P. (1999a). Unthinking Whiteness, rethinking democracy. In C. Clark & J. O’Donnell (Eds.), Becoming and unbecoming White: Owning and disowning a racial identity (pp. 10–55). Westport: Greenwood.
McLaren, P. (1999b). Resisting Whiteness: Revolutionary multiculturalism as counterhegemoinc praxis. In D. Slayden & R. K. Whillock (Eds.), Soundbite culture: The death of discourse in a wired world (pp. 113–149). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
McLaren, P. (2000). Che Guevara, Paulo Freire, and the pedagogy of revolution. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Mills, C. W. (1997). The racial contract. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Mills, C. W. (1998). Blackness visible: Essays on philosophy and race. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Mills, C. W. (1999). The racial polity. In S. E. Babbitt & S. Campbell (Eds.), Racism and philosophy (pp. 13–31). Ithaca: Cornel University Press, [endnotes] 255–257.
Mills, C. W. (2000). Race and the social contract tradition. Social Identities, 6(4), 441–462.
Mills, C. W. (2001). White supremacy and racial justice. In J. Sterba (Ed.), Social and political philosophy: Contemporary perspectives (pp. 321–337). New York: Routledge.
Mills, C. W. (2003). From class to race: Essays in White Marxism and Black radicalism. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Moses, W. J. (1978). The golden age of Black nationalism, 1850–1925. New York: Oxford University Press.
Moses, W. J. (1998). Afrotopia: The roots of African American popular history. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Omi, M., & Winant, H. (1994). Racial formation in United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s. New York: Routledge.
Outlaw, L. T. Jr. (1990). Toward a critical theory of ‘race.’ In D. T. Goldberg (Ed.), Anatomy of racism (pp. 58–82). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Outlaw, L. T. Jr. (1996). On race and philosophy. New York: Routledge.
Rabaka, R. (2002). Malcolm X and/as critical theory: Philosophy, radical politics, and the African American search for social justice. Journal of Black Studies, 33(2), 145–165.
Rabaka, R. (2003a). I found myself in his words: Reflections on the centennial of W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk. Newark Reads Du Bois Newsletter. Institute on Ethnicity, Culture, and the Modern Experience, Rutgers University-Newark. Retrieved February 3, 2003, from http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~history/DuBois/rabaka.html.
Rabaka, R. (2003b). W.E.B. Du Bois’s evolving Africana philosophy of education. Journal of Black Studies, 33(4), 399–449.
Rabaka, R. (2003c). ‘Deliberately using the word colonial in a much broader sense’: W.E.B. Du Bois’s concept of ‘semi-colonialism’ as critique of and contribution to postcolonialism. Jouvert: A Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 7(2), 1–32.
Rabaka, R. (2003d). W.E.B. Du Bois and/as Africana critical theory: Pan-Africanism, critical Marxism, and male-feminism. In J. L. Conyers (Ed.), Africa and the Academy (pp. 67–112). Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.
Rabaka, R. (2003e). W.E.B. Du Bois and ‘The Damnation of Women’: An essay on Africana anti-sexist critical social theory. Journal of African American Studies, 7(2), 39–62.
Rabaka, R. (2004). The souls of Black female folk: W.E.B. Du Bois and Africana anti-sexist critical social theory. Africalogical Perspectives, 1(2), 100–141.
Rabaka, R. (2005a). W.E.B. Du Bois’s theory of the talented tenth. In M. K. Asante & A. Mazama (Eds.), The encyclopedia of Black studies (pp. 443–445). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Rabaka, R. (2005b). Booker T. Washington’s philosophy of accommodationism. In M. K. Asante & A. Mazama (Eds.), The encyclopedia of Black studies (pp. 1–3). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Rabaka, R. (2005c). W.E.B. Du Bois and decolonization: Pan-Africanism, postcolonialism, and radical politics. In J. L. Conyers (Ed.), W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, and Pan-Africanism (pp. 123–154). Lewistown, NY: Mellen Press.
Rabaka, R. (2006a). Africana critical theory of contemporary society: Ruminations on radical politics, social theory, and Africana philosophy. In M. K. Asante and M. Karenga (Eds.), The handbook of Black studies (pp. 130–152). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Rabaka, R. (2006b). The souls of Black radical folk: W.E.B. Du Bois, critical social theory, and the state of Africana studies. Journal of Black Studies 36 (5), 732–763.
Rabaka, R. (2006c). W.E.B Du Bois’s “The Comet” and contributions to critical race theory: An essay on Black radical politics and anti-racist social ethics. Ethnic Studies Review: Journal of the National Association for Ethnic Studies 29 (1), 22–48.
Rabaka, R. (2007). W.E.B. Du Bois and the problems of the twenty-first century: An essay on Africana critical theory. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Rabaka, R. (2008). Du Bois’s dialectics: Black radical politics and the reconstruction of critical social theory. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books/Rowman Littlefield Publishers.
Richards, P. (1970). W.E.B. Du Bois and American social history: Evolution of a Marxist. Radical America, 5, 43–87.
Robinson, C. J. (2000). Black Marxism: The making of the Black radical tradition. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina.
Roediger, D. R. (1994). Towards the abolition of Whiteness: Essays on race, politics, and working-class history. New York: Verso.
Roediger, D. R. (1999). The wages of Whiteness: Race and the making of the American working-class. New York: Verso.
Shapiro, H. (1988). White violence and Black response: From reconstruction to Montgomery. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.
Stewart, J. B. (1984). The legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois for contemporary Black studies. Journal of Negro Education, 53, 296–311.
Stewart, J. B. (1996). In search of a theory of human history: W.E.B. Du Bois’s theory of social and cultural dynamics. In B. W. Bell, E. R. Grosholz, & J. B. Stewart, (Eds.), W.E.B. Du Bois: On race and culture (pp. 261–288). New York: Routledge.
Stuckey, S. (1987). W.E.B. Du Bois: Black cultural reality and the meaning of freedom. Slave culture: Nationalist theory and the foundations of Black America (pp. 245–302). New York: Oxford University Press.
Stuckey, S. (1994). Black Americans and African consciousness: Du Bois, Woodson, and the spell of Africa. Going through the storm: The influence of African American art in history (pp. 120–140). New York: Oxford University Press.
Toomer, J. (1993). Cane. New York: Liveright.
Tuttle, W. M. (1974). W.E.B. Du Bois’s confrontation with White liberalism during the progressive era. Phylon, 35(3), 241–258.
Walker, S. J. (1975). Du Bois’s uses of history: On Nat Turner and John Brown. Black World, 24, 4–11.
Ward, J. K., & Lott, T. L. (Eds.) (2002). Philosophers on race: Critical essays. Malden: Blackwell.
Wesley, C. H. (1965). W.E.B. Du Bois: Historian. Freedomways, 5, 59–72.
Williams, E. (1966). Capitalism and slavery. New York: Capricorn Books.
Acknowledgements
I am indelibly indebted to several intellectual-activists who have contributed (either directly or indirectly) to my conception(s) of philosophy of race, sociology of race, critical race theory, critical social theory, and radical politics. A humble and heartfelt asante sana (many thanks) goes to: Marilyn Giles, Lucius Outlaw, Anthony Lemelle, Kristine Lewis, Rhonda Tankerson, William King, Patrick DeWalt, Lamya Al-Kharusi, Kimberly Marshall, and my colleagues at the Center for Studies of Ethnicity and Race in America (CSERA) at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rabaka, R. The Souls of White Folk: W.E.B. Du Bois’s Critique of White Supremacy and Contributions to Critical White Studies. J Afr Am St 11, 1–15 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-007-9011-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-007-9011-8