The Conservation Of Race By W. E. B Dubois Summary

The Conservation of Races by W. E. B. Du Bois stood out as a very important piece of writing to me. In this piece, he explains that races are a natural existence. He notes that science has identified at least two, and possibly three, races; whereas, history distinguishes eight. Du Bois defines race as, “a vast family of human beings, generally of common blood and language, always of common history, traditions and impulses, who are both voluntarily and involuntarily striving together for the accomplishment of certain more or less vividly conceived ideals of life” (Du Bois, 1897, p. 147). Each race has some sort of uniqueness to offer to the world, but African Americans have yet to deliver this. This message cannot be delivered if this race assimilates, and they should instead conserve the concept of “race identity” (Du Bois, 1897, p. 149). For Du Bois, African Americans must build “race organizations” such as “Negro colleges, Negro newspapers, Negro business organizations… a Negro Academy” in order to make their contributions (Du Bois, 1897, p. 150). The aspect that I found particularly

The first explanation is Barbara Field’s proposition of race as an ideological construct, which is an “illusion” that has transitioned into a reality with time, which Omi and Winant reject. The other explanation is race as an objective condition and a biologistic racial theory where “one simply is one’s race” (Omi and Winant, 2002, p. 383). Omi and Winant oppose this in saying that it has no concept of racial formation. They instead offer their own theory of racial formation that falls between race as an illusion and as an objective condition. They suggest 3 conditions: “It must apply to contemporary politics; It must apply to an increasingly global context; It must apply across historical time” (Omi and Winant, 2002, p.