W. E. B. Du Bois
Du Bois is best known in sociology for his theoretical ideas, in particular the “color line” existing between whites and blacks in the United States. This barrier was physical in the sense that African Americans could be distinguished visually, through their darker skin color, from white Americans. The barrier was also political in that much of the white population did not see African Americans as “true” Americans. As a result, they denied African Americans many political rights, such as the right to vote. And the barrier was psychological because, among other things, African Americans found it difficult to see themselves in ways other than the ways in which white society saw them.
W. E. B. Du Bois was a pioneer in efforts to bring a focus on race to the field of sociology.
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One of Du Bois’s goals, especially in The Souls of Black Folk ([1903] 1966), was to lift the veil of race and give whites a glimpse of “Negroes” in America. He also wanted to show blacks that they could see themselves in a different way, especially outside the view that white society had prescribed for them. Politically, he hoped for the day when the veil would be lifted forever, thereby freeing blacks. However, he did understand that destroying the veil of race would require a great deal of time and effort.
Trending The Scholar Denied: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Birth of Modern Sociology (University of California Press, 2015)
Aldon D. Morris
© 2015 by the Regents of the University of California. Published by the University of California Press.
According to Morris, Du Bois has not been given the credit he deserves in establishing scientific sociology in the United States. In fact, Morris argues that the work of Du Bois was intentionally ignored by the white founders of American sociology, such as Albion Small, who defended social Darwinism, or the idea that society is guided by natural laws. Instead of trying to empirically prove that these natural laws existed, these early sociologists developed speculative grand theories. Their belief in the existence of natural laws also led them to minimize the role of human agency in society and prevented them from developing a comparative perspective. Du Bois attempted to challenge social Darwinism by using empirical methodology to demonstrate that racial inferiority was not a result of biology or natural law but a product of society. Two decades before the Chicago School of sociology started using scientific methodology to investigate urban ethnic and immigrant communities, Du Bois conducted an empirical study of the black community in Philadelphia. His findings were published in his book The Philadelphia Negro ([1899] 1996), which Morris hails as “the first major empirical sociological study” (2015, 45). However, the early Chicago School sociologists failed to acknowledge Du Bois’s contributions in their work.
Even though Du Bois received his doctorate from Harvard, he was denied an academic position at a prestigious American university because of his race. He pursued his scholarly career at Atlanta University, a historically black college, where he established a sociology department with a strong empirical research program. Even though most American sociologists ignored Du Bois’s work, he gained a famous advocate in Germany—Max Weber. Weber invited Du Bois to write an article on caste relations for his journal (Archiv für Sozialwissensachaft und Sozialpolitik) and tried to have a translation of Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk published in Germany. Weber shared Du Bois’s position that race was a social construct shaped by socioeconomic conditions, not biology. Like Du Bois, Weber was interested in the intersections between class and race relations and agreed that the color line was a critical problem of their era. Morris suggests that Weber’s theory of caste and status groups, as well as his embrace of cultural pluralism later in his career, was influenced by the work of Du Bois. ●
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Listen to Morris’s lecture on the relevance of Du Bois in science, the civil rights movement, and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Read an article about Morris and his book The Scholar Denied that appeared in the Chicago Tribune.
Another of Du Bois’s important ideas is double consciousness. By this he meant that black Americans have a sense of “two-ness,” of being American and of being African American. Black Americans want to tear down the barriers that confront them but do not want to give up their identity, traditions, knowledge, and experience. That is, black Americans, including former President Barack Obama (Terrill 2015), are both inside and outside dominant, white American society.
Ask Yourself
How many “consciousnesses” do you have? What are they? In what ways are they sources of satisfaction for you? In what ways do they stress you?
Thorstein Veblen
Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929) was concerned with the ways in which the upper classes demonstrate their wealth. One way to show off wealth is through conspicuous leisure, or doing things that demonstrate quite publicly that one does not need to do what most people consider to be work. However, the problem with conspicuous leisure is that it is often difficult for very many others to witness these displays.
Thus, over time the focus for the wealthy tends to shift from publicly demonstrating a waste of time to publicly demonstrating a waste of money. The waste of money is central to Veblen’s most famous idea, conspicuous consumption. It is much easier for others to see conspicuous consumption (e.g., huge mansions) than it is for them to see conspicuous leisure.
Veblen is important because he focused on consumption at a time when it was largely ignored by other social theorists. Furthermore, his specific ideas, especially conspicuous consumption, continue to be applied to the social world.
Ask Yourself
Picture some of the many examples of conspicuous consumption. Consider the brand names on your clothing, smartphone, and laptop. Are they expensive brands with visible logos and high status or less expensive, no-name brands with little or no status? Are you less likely to buy clothing (and other products) with visible brand names because you are more interested in creating your own style?
Contemporary Sociological Theory
As sociology has developed and grown as a discipline, the grand theories of earlier sociologists have evolved and branched out into at least a dozen newer theories. The work of the classical theorists has influenced each of these theories. As Table 2.1 shows, these contemporary theories and the others reviewed in the rest of this chapter can be categorized under three broad headings: structural/functional, conflict/critical, and inter/actionist theories.
Structural/Functional Theories
Structural/functional theories focus on large-scale social phenomena, including the state and culture (see Chapter