"RACE, CLASS AND SHAME: W.E.B. Du Bois on Black Solidarity"
A public lecture by:
Dr. Tommie Shelby, Professor of Social Sciences, Harvard University
Wednesday, December 6, 2006; 5 P.M. to 7 P.M.
The John D. O'Bryant African-American Institute's
Amilcar Cabral Center, Northeastern University, 40 Leon Street in Boston
This lecture takes up the challenge that class differences among black Americans pose for their political solidarity, a subject with which W. E. B. Du Bois grappled throughout his life. Focusing on Du Bois' account of the relationship among black ideals, group solidarity, and elite leadership, Shelby argues that, while never fully rebutting the charge of elitism often made against him, he put forward a conception of black solidarity that fuses moral principle, racial identification, and self-interest into a basis for collective action across class differences. This account does not eliminate the threat of class-based fragmentation within the greater black population, but it does show that, despite growing inter-class cleavages, black American political cooperation on terms of fairness and equal respect is still possible and needed.
Dr. Shelby is the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University, where he is a faculty member in the Department of African and African American Studies and the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies. His research interests include political philosophy and social theory, especially issues of race, economic inequality, and social justice. He is the author of We Who Are Dark: The Philosophical Foundations of Black Solidarity (2005) and his articles have appeared in such journals as Ethics , Philosophy & Public Affairs, Political Theory, Philosophical Forum, and Social Theory and Practice.
Co-sponsored by the Institute on Race and Justice, Black Faculty and Staff Association, Justice George Lewis Ruffin Society, Hip-Hop Studies Collective, Brothers About Change, the Department of African-American Studies, the Department of Political Science, and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology.
Following the lecture, Professor Shelby will autograph copies of his book, We Who Are Dark, which will be on sale at the event at a 20% discount.
For further information contact professor Geoff Ward (College of Criminal Justice) at: g.ward@neu.edu |
