Du Bois, Weber, and the Problem of the Color Line

Travis Ashby, UCLA
Omar Lizardo, University of California, Los Angeles
Dustin Stoltz, Lehigh University
Michael Wood, Brigham Young University

In The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. Du Bois famously wrote, "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line." In a letter to Du Bois, Weber agreed, saying, “I am absolutely convinced that the ‘color-line’ problem will be the paramount problem of the time to come, here and everywhere in the world.” Although the two scholars had multiple brief interactions, the two never had a formal intellectual engagement. In this paper, we bring their ideas into conversation to develop a systematic theory of the color line, focusing on the various ways the problem of the color line is manifest. We begin by noting that both Du Bois and Weber observed tensions in the modern world characterized by certain commitments contradicting others. At the same time, Du Bois recognized that in many instances, the color line was used to further other ends. Following their lead, we distinguish between "race as a value," in which the distinctiveness and/or supremacy of one's race becomes an end in itself that exists in tension with other ends, and "racialized value spheres," in which the organized seeking and distribution of goods within given domains is racialized. We outline multiple dimensions within these categories and discuss historical examples of each. From the perspective developed here, the problem of the color line takes different forms in different times and places, sometimes furthering other ends, and sometimes existing in tension with them. We conclude with a discussion of how the perspective developed here can benefit scholarship on race and ethnicity.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 151. The Global Color Line