ANNALS, AAPSS, 568, March 2000 Reclaiming a Du Boisian Perspective on Racial Attitudes By LAWRENCED. BOBO ABSTRACT:This article asserts that Du Boisian sociology included a strong role for racial prejudice in analyzing the conditions and dy- namics 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 socio- logical 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 sociolo- gists 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 scien- tific 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 rela- tions 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 capa- ble 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 rela- tions 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.