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W.E.B. DuBois Du_Bois_W._E._B..max-760x504, Methodology of…

- - - - "Thus a social problem is ever a relation between conditions and action, and as conditions and actions vary and change from group to group from time to time and from place to place, so social problems change, develop and grow. Consequently, though we ordinarily speak of the Negro problem as though it were one unchanged question, students must recognize the obvious facts that this problem, like others, has had a long historical development, has changed with the growth and evolution of the nation; moreover, that it is not one problem, but rather a plexus of social problems, some new, some old, some simple, some complex; and these problems have their one bond of unity in the act that they group themselves about those Africans whom two centuries of slave-trading brought into the land" - Annals, DuBois, pg. 3
        
        For DuBois, he draws a direct line of this idea of the Slave Code into this idea of the Black code. American freedom for him is founded on a lie, and what we often take to be one problem is multiple.
        
        Does this connect to the method of Geaneology?
        
        Sort of. Genealogical inquiry revolves around the idea of peeling back the layers that create society, while DuBois focusing on splitting up these issues into multiple separate ones that later join together
        
        Genealogy aims to disrupt the inheritance or transmission of values, concepts, practices, ideas, etc. by revealing a history of concealed origins, insidious effects, historical contingency, and power-laden contestation that shapes the object's construction
        
        Nietzsche's arguments aspire to answer "What is Morality" from a form of naturalism. Genealogy traces the elements of morality over time and sees how the fragments piece themselves together
        
        However, there are parallels. Cornel West's 'Genealogy of Modern Racism' explores how various meanings of Race have changed over time. In thinking about the Slave Codes and how this transitioned into the Black Codes, DuBois shows the compounding factors and transmission of values that Nietzsche categorizes
        
        “…changing the Slave Code into a Black Code, replacing a caste of condition by a caste of race, harshly stopping legal sexual intercourse, and seeking to prevent further complications by restricting and even suppressing the slave-trade…” Annals, DuBois, Pg. 5
        
        The transition from Slave code into the Black code in Annals represents this emphasis on a 'false starting point' that DuBois, centers on. He makes it clear that there has been several steps over time that hve made the plight of Black Americans concrete into American life and society
        
        Double Consciousness
        
        The idea that you can see things others can't and therefore have forethought - 'second sight'
        
        The concept that you can only see yourself or create identity through the lens of others
        
        Does this connect to Slave morality?
        
        When DuBois describes the veil as something that "only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world" (in regards to the average Black American experience), this draws clear parallels to Nietzsche and how he discusses Slave morality. Are they the same? No. However, there are points that can be seen as slight mirrors.
        
        The slave revolt in morality begins when ressentiment itself becomes creatives and gives birth to values...Whereas all noble morality grows out of a triumphant yes-saying to oneself, from the outset slave morality says "no" to an "outside," to a "different," to a "not-self"...this necessary directiuon toward the outside instead of back onto oneself - belongs to the very nature of ressentiment: in order to come into being, slave-morality always needs an opposite and external world...its action is, from the ground up, reaction" - Genealogy, Nietzsche, pg. 19
        
        The main point is that Slave Morality takes the good of the Noble Morality, and turns it into the bad. It turns it to evil. Noble Morality begins as self love while Slave morality begins with hatred
        
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        The more you get educated, the more you experience double consciousness
        
        Increased knowledge -> increased awareness -> increased pain
        
        “..the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second sight in this American world, - a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his twoness - an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder” - Souls, DuBois, pg. 9
        
        it is important for DuBois to think about perspective. He calls us to think about the role of unconscious bias, and thinking through the perspective of others.
    - - History is the foundational problem of Social Problems. Both Nietzsche and DuBois both recognize the foundational issue of progress that exists in society. They capitalize on this idea that history is often created by the victors and that this leads to a societal structure that favors those in power.