The Whither Now And Why Analysis

Critiquing those who label the preservation of African American knowledge and culture as racist, he reiterates his commitment to the struggle for black liberation on the basis of equality, not assimilation that he believes would jeopardize the survival of African Americans—their cultural and historical forms of expression, and their distinct physical African features. Du Bois is concerned that the race would commit “racial suicide” by working narrowly toward integration and assimilation. The conservation of black traditions also serves as the vital connector to Africa, its newly independent nations and the people that are still struggling for their liberation. Addressing his audience during the “Year of Africa,” Du Bois shifts his focus to …show more content…
What becomes particularly obvious in the above-discussed sections is that both the historical context in which the articles were written and the audiences they primarily spoke to matter. “The Conservation of Races” and the “Whither Now and Why” were written with an African American audience in mind, while the “The Concept of Race” chapter in Dusk of Dawn addresses a broader audience during a time Du Bois tried to find sponsor to realize his long-time dream, the Encyclopedia Africana. While the “Conservation of Races” and the “Whither Now and Why” were written to promote black unity at a crucial point in African Americans advancement, the politics they follow are in many regards distinct. Aware of his intellectual gifts and with a keen sense of where the struggle needed to head, many of the recommendations that Du Bois makes—in the “The Conservation of Races” and the “Whither Now and Why” tend to be highly prescriptive. However, in “The Conservation of Races,” he at least rhetorically urges for the creation of an institutions in which a political consensus can be worked out, while in “Whither Now and Why” Du Bois urges African Americans to implement clearly laid out political …show more content…
Fighting times and again against the “glass ceiling,” despite his outstanding and foundational work in the field of history and sociology, the later decades of his life was further shaped by deep frictions and isolation following his investigation as an agent of a foreign power. Thus, reading “The Concept of Race” and “Whither Now and Why” through the lens of “The Conservation of Races” reveals the continuity and changes in Du Bois’ race concept. These two subsequent texts further clarify why races, or at least the boundaries between the white and darker races need to persist. Ready to utilize and appropriate the gifts of the “darker races” and to use pressure and other forms of violence to heighten the division in the black community, achieving racial equality was for Du Bois never something that he sought out on the basis of interracial coalitions, lest the aspiration to merge into the society that had subjugated his ancestors for