Reclaiming a Du Boisian Perspective on Racial Attitudes

Home , Double consciousness, Morris Janowitz

ANNALS, AAPSS, 568, March 2000

By LAWRENCED. BOBO

ABSTRACT:This article asserts that Du Boisian sociology included a strong role for racial prejudice in analyzing the conditions and dynamics of African American social life. The article examines Du Bois's empirical social scientific legacy with a special focus on The Philadelphia Negro and how he treated racial prejudice in this semi- nal work. It then examines the turn away from a concern with racial prejudice in modern sociological analysis and identifies the necessity of returning to the theoretical holism exemplified by Du Bois if sociological theory on race and racism are to advance.

Lawrence D. Bobo is professor of sociology and Afro-American studies at Harvard University.He is co-authorof RacialAttitudes in America:Trends and Interpretations (1998) and Racialized Politics:The Debate on Racism in America (2000). He has beena fellow at the Center forAdvanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford Univer- sity and a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation in New York.

186 RECLAIMINGA DU BOISIANPERSPECTIVE 187

The AmericanNegro, therefore,is sur- Robert E. Park, Lewis Wirth, and rounded and conditioned by the con- W. I. Thomas as one of the fountain- cept which he has of white people and heads of American sociology. Had not he is treated in accordance with the racism so thoroughly excluded him concept they have of him. from in the center of the -W.E.B. Du Bois ([1940] 1995) placement academy, he might arguably have come to rank with Max Weber or W.E.B. Du Bois is most widely Emile Durkheim in stature.1 Today, known as an essayist, biographer, so- urban anthropologists, historical cial commentator, and activist. His economists, political scientists, life's project involved an interroga- social psychologists, and sociologists tion of the problem of race and the all attempt to claim a piece of the Du pursuit of freedom for African Ameri- Boisian legacy (Bay 1998). cans (indeed the pursuit of freedom My purpose here is to add to the for all those on the wrong trapped stream of side of the color line in a colonial, im- growing scholarship reclaiming and building upon the and capitalistic world or- perialistic, contributions of W.E.B. Du Bois the der). In what is surely his most oft empirical social scientist. At core, I quoted passage, Du Bois declared, argue that Du Bois's sociological of the status of African The problem of the twentieth century is analysis Americans reflected a foundational the problem of the color line-the rela- tion of the darker to the lighter races of concern with prejudice and racial men in Asia and Africa, in America and attitudes. It is essential to reconsider the islands of the sea. (Du Bois [1903] and resuscitate this aspect of Du 1997, 45) Boisian sociology. Modern sociologists have abandoned, more often Deep and timeless social insights of implicitly but sometimes quite ex- this kind, including his discussion of plicitly so, a perspective on racial ine- double-consciousness, life behind the quality that embraces a role for veil, and his broad visionary human- racial identities, attitudes, and ism constitute the universally recog- beliefs. The result has been energy nized aspects of Du Bois's legacy. misspent in well-worn race versus Yet, for much ofDu Bois's long and class polemics and a failure to under- productive life he was an empirical stand the social underpinnings of a social scientist. He pioneered in the changing but durable racial divide. conduct of comprehensive commu- My argument begins with a con- nity social surveys, in the documen- sideration ofDu Bois the social scien- tation of black community life, and in tist. This discussion draws heavily the theoretically grounded analysis on his magisterial work, The Phila- of black-white relations. Were it not delphia Negro: A Social Study for the deeply entrenched racism in (1899). From this I extract several the United States during his early ideas about the epistemology of Du professional years, Du Bois would be Bois and his specific theoretical for- recognized alongside the likes of mulation regarding the dynamics of Albion Small, Edward A. Ross, race. Next, I review the turn in 188 THEANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY sociology away from aspects of the complete understanding of the rele- type of approach that Du Bois epito- vant social facts and dynamics. mized. Finally, I provide modern To be sure, Du Bois's career examples of the role of racial atti- shifted decisively in the direction of tudes and beliefs in the status ofAfri- activism and political commentary can Americans. after 1910. His belief in the power of facts and knowledge to persuade dimmed. Yet his for scientific RACIALATTITUDES IN regard DU BOISIANANALYSIS investigation, measurement, and evidence continued long after the era in which he The Philadel- Du Bois as scientist completed phia Negro. Thus, in 1944 in his Du Bois was a committed empiri- essay for RayfordLogan's edited vol- cal social scientist. He was openly ume What the Negro Wants, Du Bois critical of sweeping generaliza- summarized his own life work as tions and the sort of grand theorizing having three stages, with scientific common in the emerging field of research a critical ingredient of the sociology: first and third stages. The third stage, which stretched from 1928 The biological analogy, the vast generali- to 1944, Du Bois dedicated to "scien- zations, were striking, but actual scientific investigation and organized tific accomplishment lagged. For me an action among Negroes, in close opportunity seemed to present itself. I co-operation,to secure the survival of could not lull my mind to hypnosis by re- the Negro race, until the cultural garding a phrase like "consciousnessof development of America and the kind"as scientific law.... I determinedto world is to science into a willing recognize Negro put sociologythrough study freedom" of the condition and of own (Du Bois 1944a, 70). Hence, problems my some 40 after The group. I was going to study the facts, any years Philadelphia and all facts concerning the American Negro, Du Bois reasserted the need Negro and his plight, and by measure- for scientific evidence in his projectof ment and comparisonand research, work pursuing black freedom. He struck a up to any valid generalization which I similar note in a 1948 essay for Phy- could. (Du Bois [1940] 1995, 51) lon assessing change in race relations in the United States (Du Bois His inductive approach and zeal for 1948). gathering facts had been sparked In The Philadelphia Negro, Du during his years at Harvard by Bois set out to provide a comprehen- Albert Bushnell Hart and were sub- sive analysis of Philadelphia's Sev- sequently nurtured by the German enth Ward, then the largest concen- political economist Gustav Schmol- tration of blacks in the city. He ler during Du Bois's studies at the developed six interview and enu- University of Berlin (Rudwick 1974; meration protocols. He rejected the Bulmer 1991; McDaniel 1998). He reigning ideas in social science which shared Schmoller's belief that sensi- would have faulted basic black capable social reform would flow from bilities for the impoverished condi- RECLAIMINGA DU BOISIANPERSPECTIVE 189 tion of most blacks. Instead, he choice, wish, whim, and prejudice... crafted a historically grounded por- Now it is sufficient to say in general that trait of blacks whose circumstances, the sorts of work open to Negroes are not restricted their own lack of train- by and large, had clear social or envi- only by ronmental roots. this is ing but also by discrimination against Although them on account of their that their a race; necessarily compacted treatment, economic rise is not hindered his framework stressed only by analytical their present poverty, but also by a wide- the of six factors: a his- interplay (1) spread inclination to shut against them tory of enslavement, servitude, and many doors of advancement open to the oppression; (2) demographic trends talented and efficient of other races. (Du and compositional factors (for exam- Bois [1899] 1996, 98) ple, disproportion of women to men); (3) economic positioning and compe- Du Bois documented the extent to tition with free whites both native which blacks were locked into the born and European immigrants; (4) most menial and low-wage positions. racial prejudice and discrimination; He concluded that "the cause of this (5) the resources, internal structure, peculiar restriction in employment of dynamics, and leadership of the Negroes is twofold: first, the lack of black community itself; and (6) moral training and experience among Ne- agency and black self-determination. groes; second, the prejudice of the Of all these, the burden of slavery whites" (Du Bois [1899] 1996, 111). and the weak position of blacks in the Du Bois saw racial prejudice as economic structure were surely the acute among working-class whites primary factors in Du Bois's model. and as operating in lockstep with the Du Bois was thus careful to not make economic interests and ambitions of prejudice the central or most impor- working-class whites. Prejudice was tant variable in his analysis. Yet the an element of his account of why force of prejudice was ubiquitous and white workers strove to displace of unavoidable consequence in his black workers: analysis of the dynamics of race relations in Philadelphia. Partially by taking advantage of race prejudice, partially by greater economic Du Bois on the role of prejudice efficiency and partially by the endeavor to maintain and raise wages, white work- Du Bois saw racial as a prejudice men have not only monopolizedthe new constituent factor in the structural industrial opportunities of an age which placement of blacks in the labor and has transformed Philadelphia from a co- housing markets. Consider first the lonial town to a world-city,but have also labor market. An early chapter on oc- been enabled to take from the Negro cupations in The Philadelphia Negro workman the opportunities already en- asserts the critical role of prejudice joyed in certain lines of work. (Du Bois in erecting a color bar to economic op- [1899] 1996, 127) portunity for blacks: Prejudice and economic motives both In the realm of social phenomena the law contributed to whites' efforts to seal of survival is greatly modified by human off opportunities from blacks. "To re- 190 THEANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY peat, then," Du Bois wrote, "the real stresses that Du Bois does not de- motives back of this exclusion are velop an economically deterministic plain: a large part is simple race analysis. prejudice, always strong in working Du Bois was equally forceful about classes and intensified by the pecu- the role of prejudice in restricting liar history of the Negro in this coun- black options in the housing market. try. Another part, however, and pos- This too has bearing on fundamental sibly more potent part, is the natural quality-of-life experience issues since spirit of monopoly and the desire to where one lives immediately affects keep up wages" (129). exposure to a variety of potentially Du Bois was careful not to reduce unwanted or even hazardous social prejudice to economic motives. In- conditions. Although the level of seg- deed, he suggested that quite irra- regation had not reached anything tional actions might be undertaken like it would in later years, Du Bois in service of anti-black prejudice. His concluded that blacks faced discrimi- discussion of black occupational and nation in seeking housing and in job opportunities concludes: what they paid for housing. Thus, he reported that All these considerations are further com- plicated by the fact that the industrial three causes of even greater impor- condition of the Negro cannot be consid- tance ... are the limited localities where ered apart from the great fact of race Negroes may rent, the peculiar connec- prejudice-indefinite and shadowy as tion of dwelling and occupation among that phrase may be. It is certain that, Negroes and the social organization of while industrial co-operationamong the the Negro. The undeniable fact that most groups of a great city population is very Philadelphia white people prefer not to difficult under ordinary circumstances, live near Negroes limits the Negro very that here it is rendered more difficult and seriously in his choiceof a home and espe- in some respects almost impossible by cially in the choice of a cheap home. the fact that nineteen-twentieths of the Moreover,real estate agents knowing the population have in many cases refused to limited supply usually raise the rent a co-operatewith the other twentieth, even dollar or two for Negro tenants, if they do when the co-operation means life to the not refuse them altogether. (Du Bois latter and great advantage to the former. [1899] 1996, 295) In other words, one of the great postu- lates of the science of economics-that He went on to note that to men will seek their economic advan- proximity also influ- in this case because in potential job opportunities tage-is untrue, enced where blacks lived as did a de- many cases men will not do this if it in- sire to be near traditional black volves association, even in a casual and com- business way, with Negroes. And this munity institutions. fact must be taken account of in all judg- Prejudice and racial attitudes ments as to the Negro's economic prog- were so central to Du Bois's descrip- ress. (Du Bois [1899] 1996, 146-47) tive assessment and analytical framework that he devoted an entire For this reason, economic historian chapter to "The Contact of the Jacqueline Jones (1998, 104) rightly Races"-with sections on color preju- RECLAIMINGA DU BOISIANPERSPECTIVE 191 dice, benevolence, and the intermar- come to constrain all blacks: "Being riage of the races. That the reason for few in number compared with the the chapter and the thread holding whites the crime or carelessness of a together its sections was racial preju- few of his race is easily imputed to dice-the ideas, beliefs, feelings, and all, and the reputation of the good, consequent patterns of behavior of industrious and reliable suffer whites toward blacks-he declared thereby" (Du Bois [1899] 1996, 323). at the very outset: Similarly, he refers to the expec- tations and tastes of whites as Incidentally throughout this study the constraining black advancement. prejudice against the Negro has been Accordingly, "men are used to seeing again and again mentioned. It is now Negroes in inferior positions; when, time to reduce this somewhat indefinite therefore, by any chance a Negro gets term to Everybody something tangible. in a better position, most men imme- of the knows speaks matter, everybody conclude that he is not fitted that it but in what form it diately exists, just before he has a chance to shows itself or how influential it is few for it, even show his fitness" agree. (Du Bois [1899] 1996, 322) (324). Du Bois recounts 20 cases of blacks in the skilled Although Du Bois never posited a capable trades, such as book clear conceptual definition of racial binders, typesetters, and who prejudice, he systematically re- carpenters, stone-cutters, were excluded from work in their re- counted its dynamics and effects. He fields. His research identi- identified six specific types of effects spective fied numerous blacks with of prejudice: (1) restriction of blacks training in the skilled trades who were unable to menial work roles; (2) vulnerabil- to secure or ity to displacement due to competi- appropriate employment tion from native whites or white im- who had been driven out of suitable migrants; (3) resentment of black positions: advancement and initiative; (4) vul- In the matter of the however, nerability to financial exploitation; trades, there can be no serious question of abil- (5) inability to secure quality educa- for years the Negroes filled satisfac- tion for children or to shelter them ity; torily the trades of the city, and to-day in from societal and discrimi- prejudice many parts of the South they are still nation; and (6) a wide array of dis- prominent.And yet in Philadelphia a de- courteous and insulting treatment in termined prejudice,aided by public opin- "social intercourse." ion, has succeedednearly in driving them Although Du Bois mainly de- fromthe field. (Du Bois [1899] 1996, 329) scribes actual forms of discrimination, he explicitly invokes an under- He identified several exceptional in- lying individual mind-set and larger stances in which blacks achieved em- social climate of prejudice as the root ployment in a skilled trade. But in of the discrimination. For example, Du Bois's analysis, the extraordinary without directly using the term intervention required in each case "stereotypes," he describes how gen- proved the general rule of an almost eral images and beliefs about blacks absolute color bar against blacks in 192 THEANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY access to employment in the skilled felt among the most talented seg- trades. He was quite unequivocal ment of the black population: about the importance of prejudice to this color line: Besides these tangible and measurable forms there are deeper and less easily de- The chief agency that brings about this scribedresults of the attitude of the white state of affairs is public opinion; if they populationtoward the Negroes: a certain were not intrenched, and strongly in- manifestation of a real or assumed aver- trenched, back of an active prejudiceor at sion, a spirit of ridicule or patronage, a least a passive acquiescencein this effort vindictive hatred in some, absolute indif- to deprive Negroes of a decent livelihood, ference in others; all this of course does both trade unions and arbitrary bosses not make much difference to the mass of would be powerless to do the harm they the race, but it deeply wounds the better now do;where, however, a large section of classes, the very classes who are attain- the public more or less openly applaud ing to that which we wish the mass to at- the stamina of a man who refuses to work tain. (Du Bois [1899] 1996, 350) with a "Nigger,"the results are inevita- ble. (332-33) He noted a deep irony here. Rather than creating the sort of blacks they The nature and effects of the ideally wanted, white prejudice served to the most talented prejudice varied by gender and by depress and to alienate the most class in Du Bois's analysis. Black profoundly within the black commu- women were stereotyped into a marginal white and dis- highly restrictive set of roles: nity. Thus, prejudice crimination contributed to crime, il- licit behavior, and social disorder At a time when women are in engaged rather than to and to a than success, mobility, bread-winning larger degree In a manner ever before, the field open to Negro harmony. disturbingly to the women is unusually narrow. This is, of analogous "modern incarcera- course, due largely to the more intense tion state," as Du Bois saw it, prejudices of females on all subjects, and especially to the fact that women who the class of Negroes which the prejudices work dislike to be in any way mistaken of the city have distinctly encouraged is for menials, and they regard Negro that of the criminal, the lazy, and the women as menials par excellence. (Du shiftless; for them the city teems with in- Bois [1899] 1996, 333-34) stitutions and charities; for them there is succor and sympathy; for them Philadel- phians are thinking and planning;but for He on to recount nine instances goes the educated and industrious young col- of black women completely turned ored man who wants work and not plati- away from work or closed out of more tudes, wages and not alms, just rewards skilled positions and instead made to and not sermons-for such colored men scrub or wash. Philadelphiaapparently has no use. (352) These indignities, rebuffs, and profound constraints on one's own He concludes the section on color life chances and those of one's chil- prejudice by calling on the "best con- dren Du Bois argued were acutely science" of white Philadelphia to re- RECLAIMINGA DU BOISIANPERSPECTIVE 193 alize its duty to the black citizens of cept of Race." Du Bois's concern with the city. prejudice was thus by no means a His final substantive chapter dis- passing phase of his early intellec- cusses the "duty of the whites." Here tual career. again, he stressed the need for new Du Bois's understanding of the attitudes: nature of prejudice seemed to under- score its basis in ignorance and We need then a radical change in public acquiescence to social custom. In this opinion on this point;it will not and ought sense, his conceptualization is not far not to come suddenly, but instead of from ways of understanding preju- thoughtless acquiescence in the contin- dice still common in the social sci- exclusion of ual and steadily encroaching ences (Katz 1991; Pettigrew 1982). from work in the the lead- Negroes city, Later in life, he would come to believe of and to be ers industry opinion ought that had here and there to new prejudice deeper psycho- trying open up op- and irrational roots. He would portunities and give new chances to logical that economic bright coloredboys. (Du Bois [1899] 1996, occasionally argue 395) arrangements and interests preceded deep racial prejudice. At some Du Bois tried to craft a final word on points, he even speculated that there the role of prejudice that did not was a special perversity or animus white to African paint most white Philadelphians as underlying hostility Americans. deliberate oppressors: A number of pioneering black soci- Again, the white people of the city must ologists shared Du Bois's belief that a remember that much of the sorrow and full analysis of the status of African bitterness that surrounds the life of the Americans required engaging issues American Negro comes from the uncon- of racial attitudes and prejudice. For scious prejudice and half-conscious ac- example, Charles S. Johnson's The tions of men and women who do not in- Negro in American Civilization tend to (396-97) annoy. (1930) devoted an entire chapter to racial attitudes. In a subsequent re- Black progress required action on search monograph, Johnson dis- both the economic and the attitudi- cussed the importance of stereotypes nal front. to black-white relations (Masuoka Du Bois's analytical concern with and Johnson 1946). To be sure, John- prejudice lasted long after his com- son emphasized the economic and pletion of The Philadelphia Negro. In situational underpinnings of preju- an essay in the American Journal of dice and racial conflict. Yet, like Du Sociology, where his ambit was Bois, he saw racial attitudes as an es- global, he still employed prejudice as sential element in analyzing race re- a central concept (Du Bois 1944b). lations: Likewise, a concern with racial attitudes and prejudice appears repeat- The attitude one holds toward another edly in Dusk of Dawn ([1940] 1995), group becomes an important tool for ra- particularly the chapter "The Con- cial adjustment as well as for researches 194 THEANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY in the field. The tendency to act, a mental fascism, nazism, the Holocaust, the set toward an object-in short, an atti- collapse of colonial institutions in tude-is a form of conduct. It is an ele- Africa and India, the establishment ment in social interactions: it constitutes of the United Nations, and the emer- social institutions and the core of person- of a civil move- alities. It is for this reason that one gence powerful rights ment in the United States-that ulti- should understand the nature of racial to attitudes. (Masuokaand Johnson 1946, 7) mately compelled sociologists devote more systematic attention to issues of and In Black Metropolis, Drake and Cay- race, ethnicity, ton dedicated several chapters to nationality. The two decades World analyzing the dynamics of the color following War II witnessed an of line. In discussing the difference be- explosion research on race and ethnic rela- tween southern and northern preju- much of it a dice, Drake and Cayton made it clear tions, emphasizing that migration to the Midwest had prejudice-discrimination paradigm. The works this era not eliminated prejudice and dis- major during An crimination from the experience of include Myrdal's American African Americans (Drake and Cay- Dilemma (1944), Adorno and col- ton [1945] 1993, 101). Even Cox's leagues' The Authoritarian Personal- Caste, Class and Race ([1948] 1970) ity (1950), Allport's The Nature of devoted a chapter to race prejudice, Prejudice (1954), Bettleheim and intolerance, and nationalism. Al- Janowitz's Social Change and Preju- though he saw economic relations as dice (1964), Williams, Dean, and fundamental and racial prejudice as Suchman's Strangers Next Door an ideology of exploitation promul- (1964), Selznick and Steinberg's The gated mainly by and for capitalists, Tenacity of Prejudice (1969), as well Cox did not dismiss racial prejudice as countless research articles, edited as unimportant epi-phenomena. In- volumes, and monographs. Although stead, he recognized that any full ac- increasingly under challenge from count of racial dynamics, conflict, power and conflict models, the preju- and antagonism had to engage the dice approach to race relations con- question of attitudes and prejudice. tinued its intellectual dominance through much of the era of rioting and civil disorder in the as SOCIOLOGICALDISINTEREST 1960s, IN PREJUDICE epitomized by such works as Marx's Protest and Prejudice (1967), Camp- With the noteworthy exception of bell and Schuman's study for the the Chicago School, the founding fig- Kerner Commission (1968), and ures of sociology gave short shrift to Sears and McConahay's The Politics matters of race relations. Race preju- of Violence (1973). But by this dice, discrimination, and racism later time, the dominance of the were not central concerns of Marx, prejudice-discrimination paradigm Weber, or Durkheim (Blauner 1972; had passed. Stone 1985; Omi and Winant 1986). As forms of social protest and It was the crush of world events- turmoil mounted in the 1960s, a RECLAIMINGA DU BOISIANPERSPECTIVE 195

younger generation of sociologists domination and hierarchy, and racism's turned to power and conflict models subjective concomitants of prejudice and to understand race relations. These other motivations and feelings is a basic one. (Blauner approaches stressed historical, 1972, 9-10) structural, and economy-centered Issues of analyses of race relations. Blauner's privilege, group interests, and the routine mobi- Racial Oppression inAmerica (1972), exploitation, which articulated his internal coloni- lization of biased institutional ar- and alism model, is in some respects the rangements practices-rather than be at the cen- paradigm-establishing work in this prejudice-should ter of of race. genre. To be sure, there had been pre- analyses a few cursors of such theoretical formula- Although have pursued the internal colonialism model as tions, especially Cox's Caste, Class such, Blauner's emphasis on structural and Race ([1948] 1970). And strong arrangements as sufficient critiques of the prejudice-dis- analyti- cal foundation for crimination model had been heard examining race relations has had more earlier. For example, Arnold Rose lasting effects. this is seen in (1956) and Herbert Blumer (1958) Certainly Bonacich's work on split-labor mar- had challenged the emphasis on ket theory (1972). In some ways, it is prejudice, questioning the link be- also seen in Wilson's declining tween prejudice and discrimination. significance of race thesis His But it was Blauner who most cen- (1978). theoretical articulated a view that race framework, although trally racial and racism were historical and struc- taking ideologies seriously (see Wilson 1973), stresses the changing tural forces in their own right. He in- economic and political structures of sisted that racism had an independ- race relations (Wilson Wil- ent institutional base that did not 1978). son's argument is organized around require prejudice in order to exert ef- three major epochs of race relations fect. His critique of prior research that reflect distinctive structural identified four shortcomings of prior configurations of the economy and sociological models; among these was the polity. the focus on prejudice: Certainly the critique of studies of prejudice has not vanished. Stephen The processesthat maintain domination- Steinberg (1998) identifies a focus on control of whites over nonwhites-are attitudes and prejudice as one of the built into the major social institutions. fundamental flaws of social science These institutions either exclude or re- of race. For strict the of racial analyses Steinberg, participation groupsby that focused on procedures that have become conven- analyses prejudice and discrimination "were ahistorical tional, part of the bureaucraticsystem of rules and regulations. Thus there is little abstractions that, if anything, need for prejudice as a motivating force. obscured the unique aspects of racial Because this is true, the distinction be- oppression" (Steinberg 1995, 87). tween racism as an objective phenome- Likewise, Bonilla-Silva's (1997) non, located in the actual existence of recent efforts to develop an argument 196 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICANACADEMY about structural racism and racial- wealth inequalities (see Oliver and ized social processes is heavily criti- Shapiro 1995)-I follow in Du Bois's cal of examinations of prejudice footsteps in insisting that prejudice (though he is equally critical of the is a constituent element in the mod- failures of Marxist and other purely ern reproductionof systematic racial material determinist positions). inequality.2 Both arguments are easily shown to First, accumulating evidence be oversimplified and, more impor- shows that negative racial attitudes tant, miss the core idea exemplified are part of the problemof high unem- by Du Bois: powerful social analysis ployment faced by African Ameri- need not deny the force of prejudice cans. Recent in-depth interviews and discrimination in order to show with employers seeking to fill low- the importance of economic and skill positions suggest that they political factors. often hold very negative stereotypi- cal images of blacks, especially of black men. Kirschenman and THE MODERNROLE OF young RACIALATTITUDES Neckerman (1991) found powerful IN RACIALINEQUALITY evidence of racial stereotyping that informed employer preferences and Studies of prejudice and efforts to decisions in Chicago. The negative theorize how prejudiceinfluences the stereotypes not only influenced per- status of AfricanAmericans have not ceptions and hiring decisions but disappeared from the scene (Tuch prompted employers to utilize selec- and Martin 1997; Schuman et al. tive recruitment and other screening 1998). Yet the level of skepticism mechanisms that had the effect of within the discipline remains high. I sorting out many potential black job suggest that the sort of nuanced and applicants. Waldinger and Bailey organic view of how racial prejudice (1991) found that white construction relates to and influences the struc- contractors, unions, and workers tural positioning of African Ameri- deliberately kept blacks out of con- cans, as developed by Du Bois in The struction work even as the demand Philadelphia Negro, is sorely needed. for low-skill construction workers There are strong reasons to believe grew in the New York area. that the modern-day disadvantages As a result, "if the employment of African Americans in the labor problems of blacks result from a mis- market, in the housing market, in match of their skills with the job politics, in the educational arena, requirements of urban employers, and in myriad forms of interpersonal then construction should be the one social interaction with whites are industry where there should be black strongly linked to modern forms of workers aplenty .... Jobs requiring racial prejudice. While there are no little schooling there may be in con- doubt structural conditions and struction, but few of them go to black processes that facilitate the repro- workers" (Waldinger and Bailey duction of racial inequality largely 1991, 314). Thus, even though blacks without regard to prejudice-that is, were in no sense a wage threat to RECLAIMINGA DU BOISIANPERSPECTIVE 197 white workers, they still were effec- whites' willingness to share inte- tively excluded from this avenue of grated neighborhood space with well-paying low-skill work. While blacks. Bobo and Zubrinsky (1996) economicself-interest is no doubt one found that this effect was not factor at work here, so is racial restricted to whites' reactions to prejudice. blacks. The effect of negative stereo- A recent carefully designed audit- types on openness to residential inte- ing study conducted by the Urban gration also applied when whites Institute found clear-cut evidence of were reacting to the prospect of His- discrimination in access to low-skill, panic neighbors or to the prospect of entry-level positions. In one out of Asian neighbors. Importantly, both five audits, the white candidate studies showed that the effect of advanced further than the black negative stereotyping on attitudes applicant, even though each pos- toward residential integration was sessed identical credentials except independent of perceptions about the for race. Differential behavior could average social class status of blacks include not being allowed to submit or other racial minorities. That is, an application, no offer of an inter- distinctly racial stereotypes influ- view, and finally not being offered a enced whites' willingness to live in job. They did find some occasions of integrated communities. Conversely, favorable treatment of blacks rela- apprehension about racial discrimi- tive to whites, but the general pat- nation constrains blacks' willingness tern was that "if equally qualified to be the first family to enter a tradi- black and white candidates are com- tionally all-white neighborhood. peting for a job, differential treat- There is some evidence that this sen- ment, when it occurs, is three times timent may be on the rise (Farley et more likely to favor the white appli- al 1993). cant than the black" (Turner, Fix, Third, a wide body of evidence is and Struyk 1991, 62-63). accumulating to show that racial Second, negative racial attitudes prejudice affects politics. Black can- play a part in the perpetuation of didates for office typically encounter residential segregation by race. Soci- a degree of difficulty securing white ologists increasingly recognize spa- votes, based partly in racial preju- tial mobility as a key aspect of dice (Citrin, Green, and Sears 1990; broader socioeconomic mobility Pettigrew and Alston 1988). The (Massey and Denton 1993). Hence, to potency of racial prejudice seems to find that prejudice both affects vary with the racial composition of where whites prefer to live and con- electoral districts and the salience of strains where blacks feel comfortable race issues in the immediate political living suggests that prejudice exerts context (Reeves 1997). Moreover,it is effects on black opportunity through increasingly clear that white candi- the dynamics of the housing market. dates can use covert racial appeals to Farley and colleagues (1994) found mobilize a segment of the white that negative stereotypes of African voting public under some circum- Americans strongly predicted stances. For example, the deploy- 198 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICANACADEMY

ment of the infamous Willie Horton that Du Bois gave us a brief to ad during the 1988 presidential cam- emphasize surveys and direct meas- paign heightened the concern with urement of racial attitudes as the race issues among the voting public only methodological touchstone for and accentuated the impact of racial examining prejudice.Indeed, none of prejudice on electoral choices the six interview protocols developed (Kinder and Sanders 1996; Mendel- in The Philadelphia Negro include berg 1997). direct measures of racial attitudes. Likewise, recent fundamental Although I do believe that direct reforms of welfare policy have taken measurement of such attitudes is place in a highly racialized political possible, necessary, and intellectu- climate. Both historical research ally productive (Schuman et al. (Quadagno 1994) and a variety of 1998), the central point here con- public opinion studies (Gilens 1999) cerns theory development and the make it plain that racial divisions fundamental elements of any theo- and racial prejudicehave been one of retical account of the modern dynam- the central weaknesses in the devel- ics of the status of African Ameri- opment of American welfare policy. cans. If Du Bois was right then and Indeed, Gilens analyzes a wide array continues to be relevant today, as I of national sample survey data and believe he was and is, then theoreti- finds that anti-black racial attitudes cal formulations that deny the rele- are perhaps the central element of vance of racial attitudes and of preju- white hostility to certain features of dice are flawed. welfare provision (that is, food Second, I do not suggest that the stamps, AFDC, and general relief). nature of prejudice and discrimination today is identical to that CONCLUSION observed and analyzed by Du Bois 100 years ago. To the contrary,I have A century ago, Du Bois published argued elsewhere that the type of The Philadelphia Negro, a work now essentially emergent or quasi-Jim recognized as a sociological classic. Crow racist ideology that Du Bois He developed a highly detailed por- found has increasingly been replaced trait of black social life in Philadel- by a more free market or laissez-faire phia. Part of the legacy of his analy- racist ideology (Bobo 1997; Bobo, sis has lost the theoretical holism Kluegel, and Smith 1997). The new which linked structural issues of the laissez-faire racism involves the economy and labor market dynamics acceptance of muted but negative to more social psychological and racial stereotypes about black behav- microsocial issues of prejudice and ior (that is, more violence-prone, interpersonal discrimination. Sociol- lazier, more sexually irresponsible, ogy would do well to revisit the model less intelligent as compared to Du Bois established. whites on average). Whereas these It is worth emphasizing two points differences would have been seen as that are not parts of the argument I of constitutional or biological origin advance here. First, I do not suggest in Du Bois's era, laissez-faire racism RECLAIMINGA DU BOISIANPERSPECTIVE 199

understands them as reflecting a cul- Rudwick 1974; McDaniel 1998), Du Bois was tural and volitional distinction: that intellectually ostracized by white sociologists in his own time (Rudwick Green and is, under the new 1969; ideological regime, Driver 1976; Key 1978). Lackingplacement in race differences are a matter of a mainstream university and the recognition degree, not kind, and involve a lack of of his peers, "Du Bois was denied that atten- effort on blacks' part, not human tion, because he was black, because the condi- nature. The new racism is more sub- tion of black Americans was not a matter of major political or scholarly concern around tle, malleable, and penetrable than 1899, and because a racially stratified system that observed Du Bois-this is by a of higher educationgave him no significant op- qualitatively different ethos and era. portunities for sustained interaction with his Doors to black participation in soci- white peers in the academiccommunity" (Bul- mer ety are not completely shut-civil 1991, 185-86). 2. Even in the case of wealth ra- rights law stands as a bulwark inequality, cial prejudiceplays a part, both direct and in- such against practices. But an array direct. Some forms of racial prejudice,such as of subtle hurdles and covert discriminationin the housing market based in processes repeatedly work to con- prejudice, affect blacks' capacity to accumu- late wealth. More strain black opportunity and indirectly, the denial of societal responsibility for racial and performance. inequality the clear resistance in publicopinion to serious The effort to erect purely "struc- discussionof reparationsfor slavery to African tural theories of racism" is likely to Americansconstitute fundamentalbarriers to fail. Although the effort to improve overcomingthe gaping racial disparities in ac- cumulated wealth. upon earlier research paradigms makes sense, there is no need to re- create the theoretical excesses of a References bygone era. Strong and more fully specified analyses of racial inequal- Adorno, Theodore, Elsie Frenkel- ity will seek to link macrosocial con- Brunswick, Daniel J. Levinson, and R. ditions to microsocial process, to Nevitt Sanford. 1950. The Authoritar- ian New York: show the interplay of social structure Personality. Norton. Allport, GordonW. 1954. The Nature and personality, and thereby follow of Prejudice. Garden City, NJ: Double- Du Bois's example of linking the day. status of African Americans to both Bay, Mia. 1998. "TheWorld Was Think- and other features of social prejudice ing WrongAbout Race":The Philadel- organization. phia Negro and Nineteenth-Century Science. In W.E.B. Du Bois, Race, and Notes the City: The Philadelphia Negro and Its Legacy,ed. M. B. Katz and T. J. Su- 1. Du Bois was one of the few Americanso- grue. Philadelphia: University of of his era to take a seminar ciologists actually Pennsylvania Press. with Weber.His bookThe Philadelphia Negro: Bettleheim, Bruno and Morris Janowitz. A Social Study, published in 1899, is preceded 1964. Social and by Durkheim's Suicide (1897) by only two Change Prejudice. years. Although The Philadelphia Negro is New York:Free Press. now recognized as a classic sociological com- Blauner, Robert A. 1972. Racial Oppres- munity survey (Converse 1987, 23; Bulmer sion in America. New York: Harper & 1991; and more generally see Broderick1974; Row. 200 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICANACADEMY

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