The Mixed-Race W.E.B. Du Bois: Historical and Contemporary Insights
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Date
2019-09-18
Authors
Simpson, Celena
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
“The Mixed-Race W.E.B. Du Bois: Historical and Contemporary Insights” unites two conversations in African American philosophy and philosophy of race: a philosophical interest in the scholarship of W.E.B. Du Bois and an engagement with mixed race, or multiraciality in the United States. The aims are thus twofold. Firstly, to present a new interpretation of Du Bois as a mixed-race figure. Secondly, to illustrate the ways in which this reading of Du Bois can offer resources to better respond to questions of ethical/moral obligation for mixed/multiracial people in the 21st century.
The two aspects of my dissertation aim to address two different problems. The first problem is what appears to be an incomplete reading of Du Bois. Contemporary philosophical work on Du Bois seems to 1) focus narrowly on Du Bois’s early work and ignore the nuances and complexities of his later work and 2) rarely take into consideration Du Bois’s multiracial background. The second problem is both a problem in the literature about mixed race and in the concrete navigation of mixed race as a socio-political location. The majority of the work about mixed race since the 1990s made substantial gains in the fight for mixed race as a standalone identity. One of the problems with this, however, is that the literature and activism concerning mixed-race identities focuses so much on personal choice and recognition that it often fails to aid multiracial people in their negotiation of racial binaries and political obligations.
In the context of these problems, I argue that Du Bois worked throughout his corpus to define blackness and projects of racial/social justice in such a way that acknowledges elements of multiracial identity and experience, while also providing a guide for responsible mixed-race politics in which multiracial people act in solidarity with oppressed populations, in response to white supremacy. This Du Boisian strategy, along with its historical foundation, helps address a gap in the literature about black/white mixed race since the 1990s, and also has the potential to offer much-needed normative guidance for contemporary mixed-race people.
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Keywords
African American Philosophy, Philosophy of Race