Du Bois – “The Concept of Race” (Chapter 5, Dusk of Dawn) – Comprehensive Notes

Early Educational Encounters with Race

Elementary–high-school curriculum
- Race appeared only in geography lessons.
- Visuals stereotyped each group:
- “Indians, Negroes, Chinese” shown by their most “uncivilized and bizarre” members.
- Whites presented as philanthropic, refined figures.
- Classroom reality undercut the stereotype: Du Bois—the sole Black pupil—regularly out-performed peers, making open assertions of Black inferiority awkward for teachers.
Fisk University (historically Black college)
- Race question discussed explicitly; faculty & student body asserted essential equality of races.
- Any claim of innate Negro inferiority “strenuously denied.”

Dominant intellectual frame ≈ Social Darwinism & “Survival of the Fittest.”
- Constant refrain: vast evolutionary gap between whites and “lower races.”
- Museum display: skeleton series from monkey ➜ chimpanzee ➜ “Negro” ➜ “tall well-developed white man.”
Shifting criteria of alleged inferiority
- Stage 1 – Physical stature.
- Stage 2 – Brain weight & capacity.
- Stage 3 – Cephalic Index (head-shape ratio)
  CI=\frac{\text{Maximum Breadth}}{\text{Maximum Length}}\times100

Emphasis moved from biology to cultural history.
“Superior race” defined as the one with a written history.
- Courses glorified Europe; Asia mentioned but no Chinese or Indian history taught.
- Africa portrayed as ahistorical & acultural.
Mixed races discussed only to assert their “evident and conscious inferiority.”
Dramatic classroom moment (Berlin): historian Heinrich von Treitschke thundered, “Mulattoes are inferior… Sie fühlen sich niedriger!”
– Example of authoritative, un-questioned pronouncement.

Assumed self-evident: one is born into a “colored race.”
Adopted term “Negro” as more precise, despite variations in skin tone.
World thought to consist of “great primary groups of folk” joined by heredity + cultural affinity.

Early differences in appearance felt more exalting than limiting (gave him space to excel).
Fisk experience:
- Became member of a “closed racial group” with its own rites, loyalty, art, philosophy.
- Internalized a doctrine of race separation without subordination.
Harvard years:
- Intentionally avoided white classmates; assumed future careers would unfold in separate worlds.
- No desire for amalgamation; even broke off courtship with a very light-skinned Black woman to avoid external perception of interracial marriage.

Observations undermining rigid lines:
- Negro community contained every shade; lines clearly porous.
- Friends mocked his “race loyalty,” noting he was mulatto, a Northerner, and should simply be “American.”
Du Bois’s concerns:
- Fear that ignoring race would produce intra-Black colorism (lighter people distancing from darker companions).
- Actively defended darker classmates’ inclusion in social events.

Pattern: individuals of humble origin who rise in status seek illustrious ancestors to validate worth (e.g., Mayflower societies, Daughters of the American Revolution).
- Facilitated by scarce records ⇒ fertile ground for “fable, invention, wishful thinking.”
American reality:
- Most citizens, including many public leaders, descend from “quite ordinary and even less” stock.
- U.S. social fluidity broke old class bars, letting new families emerge.
Philosophical implication:
- Not denial but confirmation of heredity’s importance: shows previous elites weren’t the only capable lineage; many talents suppressed by social–economic constraints.

Science is not value-free; can be co-opted by caste & race hatred.
Constant methodological shifts in racial “proofs” expose ideological motives.
Cultural contributions of Africa & Asia deliberately marginalized—curriculum omissions shape public belief.
Confronting race requires both statistical / empirical scrutiny and cultural-historical reclamation.
Early 20th-century debates foreshadow today’s issues around IQ tests, genetic ancestry kits, and curricular bias.