Social Theories by W.E. B. Du Bois, Research Paper Example

W.E.B. Du Bois was an African American social and political giant of the 20^th century. As a sociologist, he was best known for his civil rights activism and his role as a Pan Africanist. Lauded to be the most important black civil rights leader of the first half of the 20^th century, he is credited with the formation of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). As a sociologist, he clashed with Booker T. Washington’s philosophy of accommodation, which stated that instead of fighting it, blacks should accept discrimination for the time being and instead focus on working hard to gain economic freedom and in that way gain the respect of the white man. Du Bois response was that far from freeing the black man from discrimination it was perpetuating it. These were just some of Du Bois’ thoughts on the social situation in America (Lewis, 2004).

He is often regarded as the ‘Father of social science’. This is because he was the first, black or white, to systematically black people in as a social system. This was first done in the slums of Philadelphia’s Seventh Ward, while on a research project conducted after he had accepted a two-year fellowship from the University of Pennsylvania.

As a Pan Africanist, he is again referred to as the “Father of Pan Africanism”. His views were that all people of African descent had common goals and interest and should work in concert to achieve their freedom. The birth of this movement was when the colonial system in Africa was facing revolt by the freedom fighters, namely Ghana and Kenya and the African leaders reached out to the civil rights unions and leaders of the world. He is credited with the organization of four African between 1919 and 1927 as well as being the leader of the first Pan African conference in London in 1900.

During the later years of his life, his views increasingly became more radical and in the end, after becoming completely disenfranchised, moved to Ghana in 1961 as an expatriate and a few months prior to his death, he renounced his American citizenship and became a citizen of Ghana.

The following are some of theories and contributions to sociology

Concept of Double Consciousness

This double consciousness is a concept DU Bois originally began to explore in 1903 publication,” The souls of Black Folk”. It describes a sensation of having an individual’s identity separated into several distinct parts, making it impossible to have one unified identity. This was spoken within the distinct context of the racial disparity in the United States. This concept makes the assertion that since African Americans have lived in a repressive and hostile society that has historically repressed, devalued and segregated them, it has become difficult for the unification of their black identity with their American one that was granted to them after the abolition of slavery (Lewis, 2004).

According to Du Bois, double consciousness forces African Americans to view themselves not only in their own unique perspective, but also to view themselves from the perspective of how others (read white) may view them. This is the essence of the quote above.

This causes a lack of knowledge of the self-detrimental to individuals especially if young individuals are exposed. As a result, the African American suffers from damaged self-image due to the stereotypes, treatment and perception of racist white individuals. The situation is made worse if these stereotypes are made mainstream.

Double consciousness is partly responsible of creating an element of conflict within the African American individual as he/she often unsuccessfully struggle within to reconcile the disparities between an African American individual and an American citizen.

An example of this is one cited in Du Bois’ book about the artisan. By creating what he feels, he is deemed unsuccessful because his work cannot find a buyer. On the other hand, should he pander to the whims of racist society, he is unable to express himself and rejects fundamental aspects of his identity. This exemplifies and highlights the difficulty an individual faces in the quest to unite his identity.

Double consciousness is still prevalent in contemporary society. Plenty of individuals would like to argue that we currently live in a post-racial society. The reality of the matter is that there are inequalities currently abound based upon race that make it difficult for African Americans to reconcile their identities as African Americans and as American citizens. Our existing media sells us images of African American men as athletes, rappers or criminals and as a result, white America perceives black men as such. This causes African American youth to see these limited paths as their only options for advancement. This is just one of the many illustrations of how the media, which is largely dominated by white executives, continues to assume the role of shaping the perceptions that African Americans have of themselves and how the remainder of White America continues to view them.

Social Darwinism

Another philosophical concept that can be attached to Du Bois’ is second sight. The concept was generated in one of his more famous works Dark water where he seemed to take a more solid approach towards the white culture that he was living in. His concept in this book seemed to reflect on the equality that he thought the white man was showing the black man.

According to him, the biggest advantage that the dark skinned people had at the time was the ability to have a double consciousness. Du Bois viewed that this gave them an advantage in how they passive privilege and epistemology at the time. The concept stated that the black people who were living at America at the time were able to view the white man’s word both from the inside and from the outside. Du Bois pointed towards the ability to think like a white man but act like a black man. Although, according to m0st experts Du Bois seemed as though he had more of a grudge to settle than a perspective to offer. The concept is still controversial till date. Second sight meant that the black man was able to see and think more than the white man can something most white people at the time found very offensive.

The concept states that unlike the black people who view things in a wider perspective due to their origins. The white people seem to view this in a single perspective. The reason he states this is because, according to his theory the white man tends to view himself as the more dominant in the group since he comes from a more dominant culture in the country. The white man according to Du Bois reasons based on norms culture that he views as absolute compared to the other races that inhabited the country at the time. Controversially, Du Bois noted that when white people look at the world they are living in they see a reflection of the white society alone without inclusion of the black community that lives within it.

According to Du Bois the ability to see things in both perspectives gives the African American the advantage in that they are able to not only co habitat but also they are able to eliminate the element provided by the white hence exposing the misdeeds. The statement in simple terms means that this ability enables the black man to expose the equity that the white man puts on ton him in the society. By bringing out the concept and misgivings of the white society, Du Bois views that the black man is able to sit down and watch it wither from within, while at the same time understanding exactly what is going on in the community. Through this exposure, the black man is able to force the white culture to experience exactly what it is that he experiences. Du Bois names this as assertion of the mind from the body by providing the conducive environment. The main advantage that he points out to this opens is the ability to enter into the white society with their understanding through the breach in cultural reforms. Du Bois views this as a legitimate and open perspective that can be translated in the way blacks and whites relate.

Theory on crime

According to Du Bois, Crime has existed in the world for many centuries, and since ancient times; authorities have come up with a system of justice in order to try minimizing crime. The present globalization and technological development have significantly advanced the system of fighting crime. Lack of technology during the ancient Egypt and Greek made fighting of crime extremely hard. The same technology that makes it possible to fight crime has led to advanced methods of crime that are even more difficult to prevent. This means even majorly advanced methods of fighting crime will have to be invented (Provenzo, 2002).

According to his theories on crime, a criminal justice system is crucial in order to ensure that human rights of the victims and perpetrators. However, he states that the white man has taken over the justice department in a manner that no equality can be gotten. This he states is the society that black people are forced to live in. The rights that are protected are not only those of the victim but also the rights of the perpetrator to see that he is given a fair judgment. According to him, the justice criminal system by itself failed the black man by not seeing the atrocities that were happening in the society and not even lifting a finger. Dubois views that this is more than enough to prove that crime was as a manner in which the black community could integrate in the society as one and a manner in which they could they could get themselves a more respectable position (Lewis, 2004).

The criminal justice system is crucial in supporting the government in achieving the goals that it wants to attain. The system ensures that the government collects taxes, limits pollution among other accomplishments that benefit the whole society. In addition, the crime justice system shows how independent a country is. A country with a justice system shows that it can rule itself and take care of its own issues. Having a crime justice system deters the individuals who have the will to commit a crime. The knowledge that he might be captured and penalize or even given a conviction will stop them from committing crime. The idea that more crimes are committed than solved is a crucial issue to the society and needs to be handled efficiently. Sociologically, criminal justice system is critical for the simple reason that extremely many criminal offend their fellow human beings on a daily basis; hence, the system is useful in reducing the crime incidences (Wallace, Hahn, Dubois, 2007).

According to Du Bois, depending on the gravity of the main or crime a criminal can be fined or do manual duty for a period. While the community may look at crime as a menace that needs to be rebuked out of the community, the state looks at crime in another different way. The state views crime as an element that needs to be corrected in individuals. In an aim to that, the state makes the individual offenders work in community services s as to show a different picture of the offenders. In making the offenders work within the community, the justice department can make the community look at the offenders in a different light than or a different way. This helps the offender in fitting in with the community and helps the community in getting used to seeing the offender, which after sometimes removes the doubts the community has on him.  All this put together he question why the justice department is necessary is answered.

In most of his books such as The Souls of White Folk Du Bois acts, two revel some of the information he holds genuine for his race through introducing the second sight perspective. Through his criticism of the white culture, Du Bois is able to set up the black man as a hero in a society that is condemning him.  The perspective that Du Bois tries to fight with all that he has is the fact that he white people view themselves as more complete and in some way perfect in a more super manner than any other race. However, this he states is the main down fall for the Wight man (Lewis, 2004). The main reason why he believes this is, by opening himself up to as the hero the white culture shows the weakness that can be used by the enemy. Through social, divided and understanding Du Bois views that the stage set by the white man is enormous for the culture to handle which at the end will only end up exposing the unwanted weakness of the whole society (Provenzo, 2002). According to him, the seriousness that they present is seen by the black man in another manner in that, the black man sees it as a weakness instead of a strength that is reliable. According to Du Bois, some of the weakness that the black man is passives to see include the corruption in the name of power and the ugly bitterness held inside in the name of honour.

Most of what Du Bois is remembered of is how he dealt with field of semantic understanding combined with a tactical approach towards understanding of human problems. Du Bois is considered a mastermind whenever it came to black history. The way Du Bois dealt with the Black history was the main difference between him and other historians. His methods involved careful and quick understanding between the black community and the white community. Du Bois believed that if one could forge an understanding with the both communities then one would be in a better position to understand the differences.

Du Bois believed in experimenting with possible solutions to the problem. He believed in client driven solution towards the problem but most of the time it was inspired by the therapist. Du Bois applied this method with all writing on black community he would keep experimenting with different solutions until he found a bridge in culture. In the early years when social reforms approaches were commonly applied theorists, Du Bois methods were very considered somewhat heretic but they worked. Du Bois has inspired black people all over by what he did and the methods he used and applied. Du Bois will be probably remembered as one of the people who inspired and changed the world of therapy all over. His contribution in this field is filled with achievements and is probably considered as the stepping stones of the change in black community acknowledgment

Du Bois was known all over as the man who brought a new look on black history. Many black people consider Du Bois as the one who changed and challenged the assumptions people had. By using pragmatic styles that opened the black community to the world, Du Bois made a name for himself. The new generation of therapist considers Du Bois as the one responsible for teaching them how to bring growth and opens within a family. He also inspired Black people all over to learn how to take care of their clients Du Bois played a big role in formulating the backbone of the revolution international approach. The method was all about seeing the black community as one rather than seeing him/her as a nut job that had problems. Du Bois idea was that the family as a core single unite was the best system in bringing change to the patient. This was because a family was the best treatment that saw the black community first rather than an obstacle with problems.

Du Bois understood that no matter how good white people were was if it could not easily be taught that, to other it was more than useless. Du Bois spent most of his time testing his theory and making something out of them. He used every chance he got on perfecting the theories he had Du Bois wrote his books in a way that everyone could understand how to apply what he had written. He used both video and books to educate people. Du bois taught that the family was the best remedy for all the problems that black people were going through problems, and it needed to be kept as such (Young, 2000).

References

Provenzo, E. F. (2002). Du Bois on education. Walnut Creek [u.a.: Altamira Press.

Horne, G., & Young, M. (2000). W.E.B. Du Bois: An encyclopedia. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press.

Lewis, D. L. (2004). W.E.B. DuBois: Biography of a race, 1868-1919. New York: H. Holt.

Wallace, D. J., Hahn, B., & Dubois, E. L. (2007). Dubois’ lupus erythematosus. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkin.