W. E. B. Du Bois’s Influence on Whiteness Studies and Critical Race Theory

Abstract

This chapter highlights the contributions of W. E. B. Du Bois to the animating assumptions and analytic focus of both Whiteness studies and critical race theory. As interdisciplinary approaches, both fields draw liberally from Du Bois’s vast analyses of the “race” concept but cohere around six primary tenets. Whiteness studies remains animated by Du Bois’s concentration on (1) the racially unequal distribution of economic, legal, social, and political privileges, (2) the simultaneous hypervisibility and invisibility of White identities, and (3) the moral inconsistencies and hypocrisies undergirding White racial projects. Relatedly, Du Bois’s awareness of (4) the homeostatic and normative character of racism, (5) the power of synthesizing biography, visionary fiction, and empiricism to counter White racialist narratives, and (6) the unique and intersecting nexus of structural susceptibilities together propel critical race theory. These fields owe their continued resonance and application to a Du Boisian inheritance that cannot rightfully be ignored.