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W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and
Indictment of White Civilization
His Essays Analyzed
By Diorita C. Fletcher
W.E.B. Du Bois
devoted a significant portion of his monumental work for
an arraignment and indictment of white civilization. It
was Du Bois’ contention that the historical development
and perpetuation of white European and American culture
were based on a series of blatant contradictions which
all too often were denied or ignored by those who would
have it that: “Everything great, everything fine,
everything really successful in human culture was
white.”1
In several essays,
Du Bois specifically attacks the various methods used to
make white civilization “great.” He emphasizes, in doing
so, that history provides the key for understanding
where the white man is coming from as well as where he’s
at right now. I have chosen to discuss in this article
Du Bois’ ideas on white civilization as set forth in
“Souls of White Folk” from Darkwater (Voices From
Within the Veil); “The White Masters of the World” from
The World and Africa; and “The White World” from
Dusk of Dawn. My interest in this topic stems
from an observation that Du Bois almost always coupled
his studies of Black American and African History with
the condemnation of white civilization in such a manner
as to suggest that to study the one was to expose the
other.
Du Bois was
unafraid to hold up for critical examination the most
sacred tenets of the white world. For this reason he has
been deliberately ignored by white American scholarship,
which has refused to acknowledge the accuracy and
brilliance of most of his work. Du Bois’ writings on
white culture place in perspective the current Black and
Third World rebellions against white racist oppression
around the world. They also underscore the need for
continued study of the nature of white society by those
who have known white oppression. Du Bois implies that a
knowledge of the oppressor and his tactics makes for a
more successful revolt.
The white man bases
his claim to the world on his superiority to all darker
men. Where did this belief begin? What have been the
consequences? Du Bois suggests:
The discovery of personal whiteness
among the world’s people is a very modern thing—a 19th
and 20th century matter indeed.2
He refers to the
fact that it was during the 19th and 20th
centuries that the idea that “white is right” was
transformed into the ideology that “white is might,”
thus providing the theoretical grounds for a new white
imperialism. The ideology itself ultimately finds its
roots in the African slave trade which flourished
between the Renaissance and the American Civil War.
Du Bois in “The
White Masters of the World” states that the traffic in
Black lives between Africa and America was “the prime
and effective cause of the contradictions in European
civilization.”3 It was during the slave trade
that Europeans began to develop an insatiable lust for
wealth, and to lose their respect for humanity as such.
It was during the slave trade that Europeans began to
rationalize their cruel and vicious acts against less
powerful human beings. The slave trade, in short,
enabled Europe and later America to lay the material
foundations of what they would later deem a superior
culture.
Du Bois effectively
dethrones the doctrine of the superior race, i.e.,
the theory that a small white minority, by virtue of
birth and natural gift, should be rulers of mankind. One
by one he takes the various supports of this thesis,
particularly as it applies to the American way of life,
and dashes them to the ground.
Du Bois begins his
critique with a look at the white man’s religion, for
which he has few words of praise. He writes:
A nation’s religion is its life, and as
such white Christianity is a miserable failure.… The
number of white individuals who are practicing with even
reasonable approximation the democracy and unselfishness
of Jesus Christ is so small as to be fit subject for
jest.…4
Du Bois cites other
paradoxes of the white brand of Christianity. There is
the contradiction of the “Golden Rule” by the white
man’s continued use of force to keep human beings in
their designated places. There is the doctrine (still
very much in vogue) of the “White Man’s Burden,” which
began with a desire to convert the heathen and resulted
in the aim of Christianity as a vehicle for the real
possession of white heritage and its appreciation by the
humble-born. Finally, there was the Christian assumption
of the absolute necessity of poverty for the majority of
men in order to preserve civilization for the white
minority.5 These are bust a few examples of
the extraordinary self-deception of white religion.
White religion long
ago became the “religion of whiteness” based upon: “I am
white,” as the basis of practical morality; the denial
of humanity to the non-white peoples of the world; and
the distortion of history so as to glorify the white man
as being above all other men.6
Du Bois naturally saw the
distortion of history by whites as an especially heinous
crime. To those who would willfully maneuver the facts
he says:
Europe has never produced and never
will in our day bring forth a single human soul who
cannot be matched and overmatched in every line of human
endeavor by Asia and Africa.7
Nonetheless, white
and particularly American history has continually sought
by emphasis and omission to make people believe that
every great thought, deed, or dream that the world ever
knew was a white man’s. Those who have suffered greatly,
if not most, because of this process are American
Blacks. America has been extremely successful in using
the misrepresentation of facts as a tool of Black
oppression. Du Bois is careful to point this out:
A system at first conscious and then
unconscious of lying about history and distorting it to
the disadvantage of the Negroids became so widespread
that the history of Africa ceased to be taught, the
color of Memnon was forgotten, and every effort was made
in archaeology, history and biography, in biology,
psychology, and sociology to prove the all but universal
assumption that the color line had a scientific basis.8
Du Bois, in other
words, charges science, religion and government with
conspiring to distort history in keeping with white
supremacist doctrine. This doctrine has led to the use
of the world “Negro” to tie blackness to slavery,
stupidity and inferiority, while the word “white” is
taken to denote only purity, superiority. Du Bois’ own
feelings about this collusion of forces are found to be
only pity:
… above the hurt that crazes there
surges in me a vast pity—pity for a people imprisoned
and enthralled, hampered and made miserable for such a
cause, for such a phantasy.9
Additional evidence
brought forth in Du Bois’ arraignment of white American
civilization include: the failure of democracy, the
selfishness of industry and commerce, and the double
standards of white justice. Democracy in America
consists of lip-service being paid to the idea of the
rule of the people. Industry and commerce are widespread
and more secure, yet characterized by bigger thieves,
deeper injustice and more calloused selfishness. Murder,
theft, prostitution and other crimes receive only
spasmodic and intermittent attention unless the murdered
is Black or brown; then, “the righteousness of the
indignation sweeps the world.” Du Bois maintains, as
would most Blacks, that when this happens, it is clear
that it is Blackness rather than crime which is being
condemned.10
In his essays on
white folk, Du Bois invokes two specific historical
occurrences which reflect the paradoxes, lies and
hypocrisy of white civilization. These are: first, the
true reasons for World War I; and second, America’s
treatment of Blacks. These examples are given here as
proof of the indivisibility of white history and white
politics.
Du Bois’ theory of
the origins of World War I is certainly not a popular
one in American and European historical circles. His
thesis is simply that the Great War grew out of the
struggle among European powers for colonial spoils.
These spoils included not only specific products, such
as tea, coffee, palm oil, rubber and ivory, but also the
labor of dark men.
Europe’s
justification of colonial expansion was based on the
assumption of the natural inferiority of darker peoples
to whites. Europe considered it her duty, at the time,
to divide up the darker world and administer it for her
own good. The idea that darker people were of imperfect
descent, of frailer, cheaper stuff, led in policy to
their use as beasts of burden. Raising cotton, gathering
rubber, digging diamonds, fetching ivory—these were the
ways in which whites could use dark people “to the very
limited extent of their shallow capacities” for the
benefit of white mankind.
Du Bois’ theory of
World War I also explains that colonialism reflected the
realization by modern white civilization that it could
not control the white working classes much longer. As
whites began to make loud claims to a fair share of the
wealth, the white ruling classes found welcome relief in
colonialism, which provided them with a chance for
exploitation “on an immense scale for inordinate
profit.”
The first quarter
of the 20th century saw the rise of a new
imperialism which served to reveal Europe’s true
identity to the world. With Europe’s collective
determination to exploit the weakest to the utmost came
“the rage for one’s own nation to own the earth or, at
least, a large enough portion of it to insure as big
profits as the next nation.” It was paradoxical that the
big powers should go to war over the ownership of the
colonial people. The degradation of men was perfected by
Europe during the course and the aftermath of World War
I.11
Another significant
event during and after the first World War was America’s
concerted effort to establish herself as “a natural
peacemaker,” “a moral protagonist.” And yet, Du Bois
notes, America duplicated Europe’s worst sin with her
conquering of tropical colonies and with her policy of
sustained warfare against American Blacks. His words on
this subject are self-explanatory:
… in the name of Civilization, Justice,
and Motherhood—what have we not seen, right here in
America, of orgy, cruelty, barbarism and murder done to
men and women of Negro descent.12
To this oppression,
however, Du Bois credits the singular ability of the
American Black man to perceive the truth about whites.
The Black man, he says, is not a foreigner or a traveler
in America, but a native who shares the language, land,
and destiny of the white man. The Black man can say in
convincing tones:
I see the working of their entrails. I
know their thoughts and they know that I know. This
knowledge makes them now embarrassed, now furious. They
deny my right to live and be and call me misbirth. My
word is to them mere bitterness and my soul, pessimism.
… I see them ever stripped—ugly, human.13
The Black man is both a witness to
and a victim of the crime.
So, Du Bois
completes his picture of white civilization. His
perceptive eyes have scanned the records of history,
religion and politics. His evidence of the crimes of
white culture against darker humanity is overwhelming.
But before he delivers a final verdict, Du Bois states
in all fairness:
The greatness of Europe has lain in the
width of the stage on which she has played her part, the
strength of the foundations on which she has builded,
and a natural, human ability no whit greater (if as
great) than of other days and races. … Because of the
foundations which the mighty past have furnished her to
build upon … she has gone forward to greater and more
splendid human triumph; but where she has ignored this
past and forgotten and sneered at it, she has shown the
cloven hoof of poor crucified humanity—she has played,
like other empires gone, the world fool!14
Are white
civilization’s accomplishments enough to erase her
crimes against mankind? To Du Bois, the answer is no. He
concludes in his characteristically terse manner:
This is white and European
civilization; and a system of culture it is idiotic,
addlebrained, unreasoning, topsy-turvy, without
precision; and its genius chiefly runs to marvelous
contrivances for enslaving the many and enriching the
few, and murdering both.
I now turn to the
question of the importance and validity of Du Bois’
indictment of white civilization. Du Bois’ ideas on the
subject, unfortunately for some, cannot be dismissed as
the rhetorical rantings and ravings of a wild-eyed
troublemaker. His opinions are those of a leading Black
American intellectual and one of the great minds of the
20th century. Du Bois personally witnessed
some of the most significant events in Black and white
American history, not to mention his continued awareness
and experience of the drama unfolding on the European
stage.
From New England Du
Bois went as a young man to the Deep South, where he
became aware of lynchings and other brutal crimes
perpetrated by whites against Blacks. During his student
days at Fisk, he served as a teacher among
newly-emancipated rural Blacks where he saw firsthand
the desperateness of their condition. As the Great War
spread across Europe, Du Bois could be found editing
research on Blacks, organizing Pan-African Conferences,
actively participating in the NAACP and establishing a
reputation for his excellent work in Crisis
magazine.
In other words,
during his long, productive career, Du Bois had access
to the historical facts, a method for analyzing them,
and a clear perspective in general on the activities of
the white world. One would do him great injustice to see
his wholesale indictment of white civilization as simply
an explosion of anti-white anger and criticism. One must
look beneath the rhetoric for a serious questioning of
the values, practices and orientation of the powerful
white world, specifically as regards its continued
exploitation of the rest of mankind for its own profit
and well-being. Du Bois was concerned that “a group, a
nation, or a race commits murder and rape, steals and
destroys, yet no individual is guilty, no one is to
blame, no one can be punished.”16
As for the dark
world, Du Bois correctly predicted the courageous fight
for freedom of Black, brown and yellow men from the
oppression, humiliation and insult they have received
from the white world. Long ago, Du Bois foresaw “many
Viet Nams.” Long ago he stated:
A belief in humanity is a belief in
colored men. If the uplift of mankind must be done by
men, then the destinies of this world will rest
ultimately in the hands of darker nations.17
Endnotes
1 “The White Masters of
the World,” The World and Africa,
W. E. B. Du Bois, International Publishers, 1965, p. 20.
2 Ibid., p. 30.
3 Du Bois, op. cit.,
p. 43. (White Masters)
4 “Souls of White Folk,”
Darkwater (Voices From Within the Veil), Schocken
Books, 1920, p. 36.
5 Du Bois, op. cit.,
p. 17. (White Masters)
6 Du Bois, op. cit.,
p. 31 (Souls)
7 Ibid., p. 39.
8 Du Bois, op. cit.,
p. 20. (White Masters)
9 Du Bois, op. cit.,
p. 34. (Souls)
10 Ibid., pp.
34–35.
11 Ibid., pp.
42–45.
12 Ibid., p. 33.
13 Ibid., p. 29.
14 Ibid., p. 40.
15 “The White World,”
Dusk of Dawn, Schocken Books, 1940, p. 143.
16 Du Bois, op. cit.,
p. 42. (White Masters)
17 Du Bois, op. cit.,
p. 49 (Souls)
Copyright © Diorita C. Fletcher 1973
Diorita C. Fletcher,
author of “W. E. B. Du Bois’ Arraignment and Indictment
of White Civilization” (page 16), is a recent graduate
of Radcliffe College, where she majored in Spanish and
Afro-American studies, presently living in Washington,
D. C.
Source: Black
World •May 1973 • Vol. XXII No. 7 • Chicago,
IL 60605
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posted 28 April 2009 |
